Occupational Hazard
by Lone-ranger1
Summary: SG1 has a close encounter with a sniper offworld. Investigation leads to a shocking discovery. Now the SGC has to investigate both on & off-world before whoever’s hunting them gets more than an unlucky shot. But not everything is as clear as it seems...
1. Curious Round

_**Occupational Hazard**_

**Summary:**_ SG1 has a close encounter with a sniper offworld and one of them is wounded. Investigation leads to a shocking discovery. Now the SGC has to investigate both on and off-world before whoever's hunting them gets more than an unlucky shot. But what they'll find will both deeply disturb them, and pit them against an enemy they had never expected to face._

**Categories:** _Missing Episode_

**Characters:** _Samantha Carter,__ Jack O'Neill,__ Teal'c,__ Cameron Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran, various other recurring characters_

**Spoilers: (as if it matters anymore)** _Spoilers for Season 9/10 of SG1_

**Genres:** _Action/Adventure, Mystery, Humor_

**Season:** _Takes place in Season 10_

**Warnings:** _Violence, Coarse Language, Constant teasing and the razor sharp edge of sarcasm._

**Crossovers:** _VERY minor Atlantis Crossover. Unless you know Atlantis characters you'll miss it_.

**Challenges:** _This was a plot bunny I had over a year ago that I finally decided to write._

**A/N:**_So thanks to "Sealurk" on gateworld, I've decided to write this. I'm taking a break from my "Dark Frontier" SGA series and dedicating the next little while to writing this :D_

_This is the first true SG1 Fic I'm taking a stab at (mostly I've done Atlantis stuff) but this is an idea that just kept nibbling at my brain so I HAD to get it on paper._

_I'll be posting a new chapter every couple of days, so while it is WIP it's not a hugely long story. I expect to get the whole thing done relatively quickly since I'm dedicating my writing time to it._

_As always, please take the time to review. It takes maybe 10 minutes to read and only a minute or 2 to review._

* * *

"Well folks, 'fraid this looks like just another lush forest the ancients seemed to love…" Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell made no attempt to hide his disappointment and looked to each of his team members. "…With no ruins we can hang out in…"

Daniel Jackson scoffed softly at the tease. "Ha."

"…no hidden treasure…"

To Daniel's side, Vala Mal Doran visibly deflated. "Drat."

"…and no ancient technology that goes _ping."_

Rolling her eyes, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter gave a low chuckle. "I thought you hated Monty Python."

Cam rolled his eyes and kicked away an errant branch stuck to his leg. "Photographic memory isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Beside Sam who silently chuckled, Teal'c spoke as he walked along the path with the team. "It does not appear that there is anything of value or interest on this planet."

Sam cocked her head and said. "Well I'm not so sure about _that._ I mean… we've only explored a few miles around the gate."

Ahead of her, Cam turned and stared right at her. "Well unless the SGC decides to start sending the Ori flowers in the hopes of giving them allergies, I think we're done on this planet."

Sam looked around and sighed, the area around the gate was in the middle of spring and lush plant life and flowers covered the entire landscape. But it was true, they had a mission to do. "You're right... I think it's time we headed back too."

None of the others offered any argument, and soon SG1 began to retrace their steps and headed back towards the Stargate.

Vala moved over to where Daniel was with a big smile, Daniel instantly knew his day was about to get worse. "Yes?"

A big toothy grin, the kind Vala knew was both enticing and obvious. She'd learned to only be slightly vampy with Daniel as he was much more in control than any other men she'd known in her long life. "Daniel…"

A warning flashed in Daniel's brain. "Vala…"

To the side, Sam and Cam both watched and silently placed bets on whether Vala would get what she wanted. The former Goa'uld host spoke eloquently and almost ladylike. "Daniel… I was watching this wonderful program the other day about a group of teenagers who have way too much sex and angst issues. I believe it was called 'The OC."

Teal'c remained stoically calm as he walked beside Daniel, though the muted smile behind his lips was only noticeable if you really looked closely at how his facial muscles tensed ever so slightly. Daniel raised an eyebrow and replied. "Oo-kay."

Sam stifled a snicker and whispered something to Cam. The southern lieutenant colonel snorted and nodded. "You're on."

Vala remained blissfully _(and actively)_ unaware of the happenings around her. "…anyways. One of the characters, a Ryan something… his girlfriend has a best friend named Summer who…"

Already Daniel knew what it was. "How much does it cost?"

Taken aback _(or at least pretending to be)_ Vala became comically indignant as they neared the gate. "It isn't a _thing_. It's a place! Disneyland!"

Cam couldn't help it and snorted hard using his fist to obscure his smile. Teal'c simply smiled and remained silent as he dialed Earth on the DHD. Sam on the other hand turned to Cam with an expectant face. "I'll add it to your IOUs."

Daniel winced hard and wished for the umpteen-billionth time that Alien Women didn't find him so attractive. His only consolation was that Jack was in Washington and couldn't tease him mercilessly _(Somehow he still found out about these things every now and again and mentioned them during their meetings every so often. He suspected Sam as Teal'c would never gossip, but he couldn't really blame her.)_

* * *

It happened so fast that Teal'c was the only one to react instantly. They'd just stepped through the wormhole when a cloud of dust suddenly blossomed out the back of Sam's vest along with a loud crack and thwack sound, propelling her forward almost 10 feet onto the ramp in a crumpled mess.

They didn't hear anything, but an instant later Sam screamed in agony and choked trying to catch her breath as she flopped on the floor. Teal'c was at her side instantly using his own body as cover; Cam the next to react.

Cam spun around and aimed at the closing wormhole, along with the SFs and security in the Gateroom. Pandemonium reigned as the team took cover, dragging a now bleeding Sam off the ramp.

"Medical Team to the Gateroom!"

The sheer power and almost rage behind Landry's voice was reassuring. Cam instinctively secured the area with a quick sweep of his P90, then realized that whatever had happened had come through the wormhole with them.

Daniel screamed for a medic, his hands now coated with blood. He pressed down on Sam's wound trying to keep the blood flow minimal, his confusion over the state of her vest evident on his face.

Cam recognized the kind of wound, only a projectile weapon would make such a thing. Staff wounds didn't bleed and the Ori used energy weapons that cauterized as well. Blood meant a bullet. General Landry barked through the intercom. "The hell is going on SG-1?!"

The rapid response medical team came in right as he spoke, a stretcher was quickly laid out and the now delirious Sam was put on it and rushed out. "Don't know sir! We didn't see anything on the other side!"

Daniel looked at the blood on his hands, the seething rage in his body muted through everything but his eyes. "Something saw us."

Vala seemed unhinged as well, and running back from seeing Sam off, racked a round into her P90. "Dial the gate! Whoever did this is back there!"

Landry shook his head and barked. "Not on your life! Get cleaned up and up here on the double!"

Cam was shaking, it had been a long time since his basic training but a once familiar feeling came back to him from so many years ago.

Silently he led the majority of his team up to the armory to secure their equipment, then up to the briefing room to talk with Landry. The entire base was still on alert and SF's moved into formation around the gate as they began some unknown work.

Cam realized with a delayed reaction that his team had just come under sniper fire.

* * *

"We're dispatching a UAV as soon as possible. I'm not risking anymore men if the gate is under guard."

Vala insisted. "But General…!"

Landry turned his head and barked. "No buts! We're still waiting on Colonel Carter's condition and I won't risk any of you without some assurance that you won't get gunned down as you exit the gate."

Cam was angry, and when Cam was angry, Cam was verbose. "All due respect sir, it's like that _anytime_ we go through the gate. Someone shot at my team and I want the bastard."

"You and me both Colonel…" Landry gave his typical rough sympathy. "…but until that UAV clears the area around the gate, that world is off limits to SG personnel. Now, What'd you find there?"

Teal'c answered in his typical calm voice, but the muted rage beneath was noticeable. "The planet appears to have avoided colonization by either human or Jaffa. The paths we encountered appeared to have been made by the wildlife in the area."

Agreeing, Daniel leaned forward with an obvious rush to his tone. "The area around the gate had been cleared away so it's possible that at one time there was some kind of settlement, but we didn't find any ruins or even evidence that anyone had been there in years."

Vala interjected seeing how the other two were keeping succinct. "Before you ask, no. Neither Samantha, Muscles or I could sense any symbiotes in the area. Whoever shot at us must have been far away for Muscles not to hear them."

Teal'c growled softly and nodded. "I concur… Colonel Carter was targeted from a great distance. Given the available cover around the gate, I would estimate at least a 500 foot shot."

Cam summed it up. "A sniper. Someone was watching us and they waited till we were going through the gate to fire." In his mind, Cam was only grateful whoever had done it didn't aim for a headshot… or if they did, that they sucked enough to hit Sam's vest.

Landry could see the entire team was on edge, he sighed and nodded. "Alright… get your reports to me in 2 hours. Go see how Carter's doing. The UAV should be taking off soon so don't go far."

The team nodded and got up as one, all of them obviously eager to see their wounded friend.

Landry took a moment to himself. Colonel Carter was one of the most valuable resources Earth had… Once he was sure the planet was safe, he'd bring down the entire force of the base to find the culprit of this cowardly attack.

* * *

It had been hours now, and the team still waited outside the infirmary for Dr Lam to come and tell them Sam was okay.

These were really the hardest parts of being on SG-1. Watching others risk their lives and come close to death. Cam sat next to Teal'c, both soldier and warrior silent as they waited.

Vala sat with Daniel, both worried and fidgety about their friend. Daniel was nursing his third cup of coffee to Vala's dismay. "That stuff is horrible you know?"

A shrug was Daniel's reply. "I'm used to it... you could probably use my blood as a stimulant the amount I drink."

Vala smiled, Daniel always had that effect on her. "Ha… we could market it and make a fortune."

Daniel rolled his eyes and smiled softly. He appreciated Vala trying to distract them all from the obvious discomfort of not knowing how Sam was. Cam on the other hand kept pumping his fists desperately trying to burn off the anger the surprise attack had aroused in him. But he was a soldier, and soldiers don't lose their cool.

The door to the infirmary opened slightly, and Dr Carolyn Lam slinked out wearing her surgical gown.A few small splotches of blood decorated the sleeves.

Instantly the team was on their feet, peppering her with the same question. She held up a hand to silence them and after waiting a moment nodded. "She's alright. Her vest caught the majority of the damage. It's a good thing the new Naquadah laced ceramic plates are being issued or this would have been 10 times worse."

The team breathed a collective sigh of relief, Daniel was the first to recover and ask a specific question. "Can we see her?"

A hesitant shrug, and Dr Lam nodded. "Yes but only for a few minutes. She needs to rest and I just gave her mild sedative. Be quick though, General Landry will want to see you soon… I'm sure of it."

The group looked at each other with confused expressions, but none cared nearly as much as they cared about Sam. They silently followed Dr Lam and waited for a moment as she moved into the privacy curtain.

A moment later, the curtain opened and Sam's slightly stoned smile shone brightly, although her right arm in the sling didn't accentuate her features any. "Hey…"

Cam raised his eyebrows. "Uhh… how much morphine did you give her?"

Sam snickered and winced slightly. "Morphine is my _friend_."

Carolyn rolled her eyes and resisted laughing. "The injury isn't too severe but it is painful. The bullet penetrated the ceramic plate and imbedded itself into her musculature near one of the nerve endings. It'll take a few weeks to heal completely, but she'll be on light duties by the end of the week."

Sam snorted softly and winced at the pain in her shoulder. "The things I have to endure to get some leave."

Daniel groaned and unabashedly sat down next to Sam. "You had us scared for a minute there. How you feeling?"

"Like I just got shot and fell down a ramp." Sam smiled sweetly, the edge in her voice only accentuating her real meaning.

Cam chuckled and shook his head idly. "Never doubted you'd be fine, though I can't say I want to see it again."

Vala jumped over next to Daniel and leaned in towards Sam. Her half smile half sad scowl punctuated her words. "You need anything Sam? Jell-O? A tablet? A TV? Cosmo?" She furrowed her brow and leaning in, whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear. "…_Playgirl?"_

Everyone but Teal'c and Sam snickered softly. The blonde Colonel blushed a little and shook her head. "_No…!_ I just need some rest… I know it's not often I take a break but this is an exception. I feel like I should ask if anyone got the license plate."

Teal'c cocked his head and mused. "Then are we to assume you shall litigate the other driver? Judge Judy would be most interested to take your case."

Years of watching the different TV shows Earth offered had given Teal'c a strange sense of humor. Sam understood that Teal'c was just offering his own support in his unique way and smiled. "I'll sue the pants off 'em."

Seeing that she was in high spirits despite the tender bruise and recently stitched injury on her shoulder, the group chuckled at Teal'c distinctive humor and after a little more reassurances, left the room.

* * *

Landry couldn't believe the report in his hands. Even more, the little baggy in front of him that held the round that had been taken out of Sam's shoulder was even more proof.

It was impossible, Coincidence didn't work that way. The mathematical probability of this was astronomical. Sure, other planets had projectile weapons that could rival HK, Colt, and even FN in design… but to be the same caliber and propellant? He was sure that if he asked Dr. Lee he'd get some verbose and non-committal answer that in the end would just reconfirm what he was seeing.

The round that he held in his hands now was manufactured on Earth… A .338 Lapua Magnum… A bullet that if it hadn't been for the Naquadah Laced ceramic plate of Carter's armor…

Landry picked up his phone with some violence. "Walter… get SG-1 in the briefing room in 30 minutes_._ And get me Homeworld Security on the line ASAP."

A .338 Lapua Magnum… A round designed for one purpose.

To kill.

* * *

**A/N2: **_So what'd you think? Big green button right down there... So tempting isn't it? I'd love to hear what y'all think of my first foray into SG1 from an experienced SGA writer. _


	2. Friends and Leads

_**Chapter 2**_

_**A/N:** First off, a million thanks to everyone who has reviews/alerted/faved. I was shocked the morning after i posted when I opened my laptop to see about 100 emails from fanfic . net waiting unopened. I think I did a Homer Simpson yelp that woke up my brother. I tried to reply to all reviews, but if I've missed you then sincere apologies but I hope this chapter makes up for it._

_Replies to anonymous reviews:_

_**DP, **Yes, there is more coming, Lots more! :D_

_**Blue,** Thankfully if you're reading this, you got what you asked for ;)_

_**Jay400,** VERY excellent catch. I commend you for realizing this as it gets explained with time._

_**SG4ever,** I don't venture into SG1 often. But this plot bunny has been nibbling at me for weeks now and I just HAD to get it on paper. Glad you're enjoying it and thank you for the kind words!_

_**One final note,** I mentioned Sealurk in my original note, but I forgot to mention his amazing beta services. He's got his own series **"Stargate: Ragnarok" **but was kind enough __(Especially after having a bit of a fanboy moment when I told him about the story that kinda shocked me) to render his excellent beta skills. May we all thank him for such a beautiful job as there are aspects which I missed that he gladly pointed out. (Bows to Sealurk) _

_Updates should be fairly regular. 2-3 days. Depends how fast Sealurk can beta it all :) I posted this one a little early just to be nice for all the reviews and faves and alerts :)  
_

_Now, back to the story :)_

* * *

"I'm sorry… Could you repeat that?" Daniel rubbed the bridge of his nose, still incredulous as to what he'd heard the General say.

"You heard me Dr. Jackson. Forensic testing proves it. The round that Dr Lam pulled out of Colonel Carter's shoulder came from Earth. They even were able to match the striations to a specific rifle. An M24 Sniper Weapon System."

Cameron was stunned; he'd been trained how to deal with sniper fire, but being a flyboy he never thought he'd have to actually _use_ that training. "An M24? So 7.62?"

Landry shook his head and sighed. ".338 Lapua, Lead Core, we're tracking down the specific rifle from the bullet striations but it'll take time. The bullet was quite degraded and Dr Lee is working with our forensics teams. Colonel Carter is very lucky to be alive as are the rest of you."

Vala and Daniel were both confused. If Teal'c was curious as to the caliber, his expression gave no hints. Daniel asked. "Pardon… _Lapua?_"

With a nod, Vala added. "Sounds like a Gucci clone."

Cameron winced at the odd reference and shook his head. "No no no… Lapua is the manufacturer of that bullet caliber… .338 bullets are about as big as your whole thumb." The realization that if it had struck anywhere else but the ceramic plate, or been a tungsten core instead of lead, Sam would have… "It's a combination long range anti-personnel and anti-material round… it's meant to be a one shot one kill bullet."

Daniel could see that Cameron knew about the weapon, and a small fear manifested in his throat. "Could someone have stolen this weapon from an SG team? I mean… we have lost a lot of people over the years."

The General shook his head. "I don't think so Doctor Jackson. An M24 is very specialized and as far as I know no SG Teams have ever wielded it."

Cameron nodded and continued. "It's an assassin's weapon Jackson; it wouldn't do you much good for self-defense. Though a 500 foot shot isn't hard…" Cam tried not to think about it. "…Damned strange if y'ask me."

Landry nodded and clenched his jaw. "I've sent 2 UAV's to recon the area around the gate. It's unlikely we'll find the sniper as they likely gated offworld, but it's possible we dialed in before he could get out. Once I'm sure the planet is relatively safe, I'm sending in a heavy recon team." he held his hand up before the team could protest. "I know you want to go back… but despite your many talents, sniper hunting is _not_ one of them. I've had to make do with the soldiers we have and the new members of the reformed SG-14 will be setting out as soon as it's clear."

Cameron leaned forward as did Teal'c. "With all due respect sir… I think at the very least me and Teal'c should go with them."

Landry grumbled softly, and then nodded. "Well...Alright, but only because you two have combat experience. You'll be SG-14's backup. But only if the UAV give the all clear…" he turned to Daniel and Vala who were about to protest and silenced them with a hand. "…_Once_ SG-14 clears the area and we're sure there isn't a threat, you can go too. Whoever this is, they targeted SG-1 and I'm not going to risk putting you in front of the iron sights."

Daniel sighed and nodded as he rubbed his face. "Fair enough… now what does this mean that it was an Earth weapon? Could it be the Trust?"

Landry sighed and shook his head. "Given the recent incursions on this planet from the Lucian Alliance as well as Ba'al… we can't single them out. I've called in Homeworld Security to help us out with this one, and with such a serious situation, they're sending their man with the most off-world experience."

The entire group sat up straight realizing what that would mean. "Wait… you don't mean…"

Landry nodded to Daniel who seemed both elated and panicking at the same time. "Yes… He should already be on his way."

* * *

"UAV's have finished their patrol. There're a few heat signatures but nothing human down there, sir."

Cameron was fully locked and loaded; admittedly, he didn't like wearing heavy armor and a helmet, but with the potential to catch heavy rounds, he was glad to have it.

It just didn't feel like SG1 to go wearing heavy ceramic body armor, though Cam was glad for the investment in the Naquadah laced armor plated armor. "Thanks Walter! Radio contact every 30 minutes!"

The Gate Tech nodded and saluted from above them in the control tower. Cameron turned to the team Landry had assigned to recon the area and couldn't help but wonder. "So Captain, Sarge, ready for a little field trip?"

Captain Alicia Vega and Sergeant Dusty Mehra both smirked. Vega replied with a chipper tone. "Just try and keep up, sir."

They turned and began their walk towards the open wormhole. Cameron turned to Teal'c with a smile, but seeing Teal'c simply move forward unaffected by the two ladies in front of them, realized that this might actually turn out to be an even worse day.

A pair of heavily armored technicians moved forward as well, ready to erect some defensive stations to provide instant cover if needed. Cam was glad he wasn't wearing the heavy bomb proof suits the techs wore. Springtime in what he called a giant green marshmallow wasn't appealing.

Within moments they were back on the planet where the lush green forests had concealed a sniper. Despite the UAV's having been unable to detect anyone, each member of the team quickly crouched and darted forward seeking cover behind the rocks and DHD around the gate. Sniper Hunting was a hard and very patient task, and that's what the Captain and Sergeant were here for.

Teal'c knew about hunting as well, and the entire group was silent as they used hand signals to relay orders and information. Cameron stuck with Dusty while Teal'c kept an eye covering Vega.

Once the Techs signaled that the ballistics shields were up, they began to move out.

The two Air Force officers were armed with longer-range weapons than Teal'c or Cameron, FN-SCAR-H Sniper Variants that could be adapted to full auto fire in case they ran into serious opposition. Cameron wasn't too sure about their skills, but with Dusty stopping every few seconds and taking cover, then realizing it was only the native fauna, both men were satisfied.

It took several minutes to get to the edge of the forest hopping from cover to cover at a fast pace, and still not a word between them. Cameron was almost disturbed by how efficient these ladies were, but he knew that when it came to snipers, it was a cold hearted bunch.

Splitting up, Cam moved forward with Vega while Teal'c back tracked with Dusty. The thirty minutes passed without incident, and finally after running through and trying to flush him out, Captain Vega muttered with a grunt. "There's nobody here… the animals would be more scared."

Cameron nodded and clicked his radio. "Agreed… let's all meet up at the gate."

"_Acknowledged, Colonel Mitchell."_

Cam would never get used to Teal'cs insistence on using full names. But seeing the brunette Captain in front of him pushed it out of his mind. "So Captain, how'd you end up joining the SGC?" Vega turned and gave him a _'Are you serious?'_ look. Cam rolled his eyes and groaned softly. "Humor me, I'm bored."

Vega gave him a sly smile and rolled her eyes. "Iraq 2003, I took out the Queen of Hearts, sir."

"'scuse me?" Admittedly, Cam wasn't trying to flirt, so the suddenly standoffish Captain felt a little off. "Queen of Hearts?"

"Iraqi Freedom, 2003" Vega recounted it as she hopped over a fallen log and got back onto a more beaten path. As she landed, she pulled out a playing card from her vest pocket.

Cam took the card and looked at it. Information on a commander in the Iraqi Army. Now he remembered. "Oh… so you uhh?"

Vega nodded and waited for Cam to jump over the log as well. "Made Captain, got a non-disclosure agreement and here I am, sir."

Cam had to admit, the SGC's taste in soldiers was good. "Cool."

* * *

Sam knew something was wrong when she heard dress shoes tapping on the concrete floor. Seriously, what kind of soldier wears Dress Shoes?

When she saw him, she tried to sit up straight and at attention. With just a single finger up and a stern look, the man pointed at her. "_At-tut-tut!_" Without even having to say it, the man put her at ease and slowly moved towards her.

Sam was elated that he'd come, but the logical part of her brain questioned exactly why. "General, sir. It's good to see you."

Jack nodded and looked at Sam lying on the bed, a few nurses nearby saw the full dress uniform Major General standing beside Sam and moved off without making a fuss. "Likewise."

Succinct as always, Sam enjoyed that he could say so much with so little. "I uhh… I'd salute sir, but as you can see…"

Rolling his eyes, Jack let out that trademark groan that was so ungeneral-like of him. "I think this is an exception." He took his hat off and sat down on the chair next to her. "You owe me a laptop."

Curious, Sam furrowed her brow. "Sir?"

Jack leaned back and clicked his tongue. "When Landry called, I spilled my coffee."

Understanding, Sam snickered. "Oh… Sorry sir. I uhh… I didn't know General Landry called you."

Giving her his trademarked shit-eating grin, Jack mused. "Well he usually doesn't, but when someone offworld gets shot with a bullet that came from Earth… yeah, I find out pretty fast."

Suddenly sitting up straight _(and ignoring the pain in her arm)_ Sam's eyes went wide. "What?"

Jack didn't care that she didn't use the honorific, the amount of painkillers in her was more than adequate excuse. "The round they dug out of you? .338 Lapua Magnum. They're checking the bullet now to see where it came from."

Feeling the shock of realizing how close it had just come, Sam actively began to control her breathing. Ironically the same thing the sniper that shot her must have done. "…That's why the Naquadah plate…" She had been wondering if perhaps she had gotten a faulty ceramic plate that couldn't stop a lower caliber bullet that the few industrialized off-world people used. She understood now how it had propelled her forward like being hit with a car. "Sir… how did it get off-world?"

Jack pursed his lips and his eyes narrowed. "That's what I'm here for. I've gotta see General Landry and get up to speed… you don't even _think_ of moving till Lam says so."

Over the initial shock, Sam smiled at her old friend. "I wasn't planning on it, sir."

Getting up now, Jack smoothed out the wrinkles in his Dress Blues and straightened his hat. "I'll swing by later. Give you an update."

Furrowing her brow, Sam called out as Jack began to step away. "Sir?"

He turned his head and nodded. "Carter?"

"You came to see me first?"

Jack took a moment to breath and gave a barely perceptible nod. "Always."

With that, he turned back and left the room silently. Sam had to admit, when it came to friends she could trust, she certainly had a monopoly.

* * *

"Judging from the amount of penetration and ballistics tests on the Naquadah enhanced ceramic plates…"

Jack let his eyelids drop a bit and his chin rest on his palm, elbow on the table. Thankfully, he'd learned to carry a coaster around to put his elbow on so it didn't dirty his dress uniform. Dry cleaners weren't cheap and he only had two of these uniforms!

"…with dynometric testing using force plates and reports on both the .338 Lapua Magnum round and Naquadah enhanced ceramic plates…"

Plates, plates, and more plates… This was about as bad as the last IOA Supreme Council meeting where they tried to work out a proper dress code for the little bunker in the Pentagon the IOA had claimed.

"…As well as standardized testing done on the round during its inception in the late 1980s…"

It was too much, Jack had been dealing with this for almost 2 years now in Washington and he'd always considered the SGC a sort of vacation home. A place he could feel comfortable, somewhere he could silence the pestering packs of perspicastic politicians and scientists. He jolted awake and held his fists by his temples in mock terror. "BILL!"

Dr Lee stopped his presentation, General Landry on the other side of the desk along with Dr Lam both flinched at the impulsive act. The bespectacled doctor silenced for a moment, then nodded to Jack. "Yes General?"

Holding up on hand, Jack made a pinching motion. "1 comma max! Short Sentences! _Succinct_!"

Understanding the General's fractured sentence, Dr Lee nodded and fixed his glasses. "Yes well… in essence, the sniper was approximately five to seven hundred feet away. That's why even with a lead core the bullet was still able to penetrate the Naquadah hardened ceramic plate in Colonel Carter's armor. She was very lucky that it hit there and not anywhere else." Jack agreed, but he knew from experience that even a 700 foot shot wasn't too hard with a bonafide sniper rifle. Whoever it was was likely a decent shot, but nowhere near the best.

Dr Lam nodded and added from her seated position. "She's going to be okay. The bullet thankfully didn't break any bones, but the kinetic impact was still enough to create a severe contusion. The bullet itself was lodged next to her shoulder blade. That's why it was so painful…"

Jack kept impassive; no one could tell just how angry he was at the knowledge he had to remain calm.

"… It'll be another week before she can return to light duties, another 3 for the wound to heal completely. I can potentially accelerate the healing process with a very minor Tretonin drip so it doesn't affect her immune system."

Raising an eyebrow, Jack felt a little disturbed. "Tretonin? As in _pureed_ Goa'uld?"

Dr Lam shook her head. "Not exactly. The Tok'ra use a protein induced stem cell…" Seeing the dumbfounded look both Jack and Landry gave her, she stopped the medical 'mumbo-jumbo' and deadpanned. "No. it's not made from symbiotes, it's an artificially created version with stronger healing properties."

Shuddering still, Jack grimaced as he turned to Dr Lee. "Track down the manufacturer?"

Dr Lee nodded and clicked the remote in his hand to the screen behind him. "Yes, the rifle, or rather the barrel itself was old stock from Fort Bragg. It was sold to an arms dealer and from there records are…sketchy."

Landry growled and looked to Jack. "Interesting how sketchy ends up offworld."

Jack rolled his eyes and sighed. "I assume you've emailed this all to me?" Dr Lee got a slightly tense face and Jack groaned again. "I need to make a few calls. Take advantage."

Landry chuckled as Jack got up and pointed to the SGC commander's office. With gestures and hand motions alone, the two generals agreed to share it in the meantime.

Jack did miss the SGC… but this meeting above all else showed him that there were benefits to rank and paper pushing.

* * *

**A/N:** _I _know_ some of you will want to comment after that :D big green button right below! Why _not_ click it and tell me what you think? :D _


	3. Snickers and Cake

"So the reports say about six hundred feet… I guess we can do a circle around the gate."

Daniel and Vala were in their standard issue vests, something which Cameron found rather annoying. "How're you not sweating bullets? I feel like an armadillo on a Texas Highway!" He looked over to Teal'c who despite wearing the same armor, seemed perfectly calm and reserved.

Daniel gave him a raised eyebrow, and then simply ignored the quip. Captain Vega and Sergeant Mehra didn't look like they were about to complain either, so Cam pushed it out of his mind. "Pair up kids." He looked to Captain Vega, knew it wouldn't be fun at all to walk around with her and instead pointed to Dusty. "Sergeant! You're with me."

Vega's mouth moved just slightly, obviously pleased that she didn't have to suffer through Cameron's attempts at light hearted conversation. She looked to Teal'c and nodded. Teal'c returned the nod and motioned with his hand for her to lead.

Daniel on the other hand was about to protest, but Vala's arm suddenly hooked into his and began to pull him along. "Come on, make the best out of a bad situation."

Daniel began to wonder if Vala meant by 'make the best', she had suddenly turned this into a walk in the park.

* * *

"I don't care Dick. One of our people was targeted _off-world_. Who bought that rifle?"

On the other end of the line, Richard Woolsey sighed as he sat at his desk at the Pentagon. "It's not that easy General. While we do have an End User License for all sold weapons, we really do not have full control over who actually ends up with the weapons."

Richard combed through the second of twenty-three signed arms deal agreements between Fort Bragg and everything from casual hunters to private military corporations. Obviously General O'Neill didn't understand the nuances of paperwork just yet. "_Tell it to the next soldier who gets shot with that rifle."_

Suppressing his sigh, Richard turned away from the binder and spoke clearly into the phone. "General. You carry a blackberry. I will pin you the instant I know where that rifle came from."

"_I'm 26 stories underground fer cryin' out loud! You think a cell phone is going to reach me?"_

Feeling the need for calm serene quiet, Richard decided to end this conversation. "The SGC has a secure cellular relay. It _will_ reach you. Now please General. The longer you distract me, the longer it will take me to find the records on this weapon."

"_Alright alright… the moment you know…"_

"The moment, General. Have a good afternoon."

The phone clicked, and Richard looked at the other twenty one books he'd have to look through. His only hope was that the serial number of the rifle in question was in the next one, but he knew the gods didn't like him _that_ much.

* * *

"So Sarge_…_ What's up with Captain Vega?"

The dark tan skinned woman turned and shrugged. "What do you mean, sir?"

Cam moved his jaw around in confusion. "Well she's…"

Dusty smiled. "Attitude?"

"To put it _mildly_." Cam snorted softly. The Captain's attitude was nowhere near insubordination, and perhaps it was just because they hadn't known each other beforehand.

While searching on the ground, Dusty spoke almost offhandedly. "It's just the way she is, sir. She's one of the only female officers to pass sniper school and well…" Dusty turned to Cam and gave him a meek smile. "…She's cold in the field. Don't get me wrong, sir. Once she knows you, she's a great friend just uhh…" Dusty rocked her head back and forth as if irritated. "She doesn't play with the boys much."

Cameron took that as a rather vague answer. "Okay… so she's…" he made a few hand motions trying to non-verbally ask the delicate question. It wasn't as easy as he thought it would be, but it got the point across.

Dusty winced slightly and shrugged. "I'd really rather not know, sir."

Deciding to let the matter drop, Cam continued their perimeter sweep. A Forensics team had come out to join them but with no evidence found so far, they were busy doing nothing by the gate. _(Though Cam could swear he saw a deck of cards)_

It wasn't until almost 20 minutes later than Teal'c came over the radio. "_Colonel Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, we have found something. We are approximately 600 feet southeast of the Stargate."_

Cam clicked his radio and replied. "Copy that, we'll be there in five."

Idly paying attention to Daniel's response, Cam turned to Dusty. "Lead the way Sarge."

Dusty nodded and smiled. "Call me Dusty, sir."

Finding her a _much_ better companion than the standoffish Air Force Captain, Cam smiled back. "Dusty? I _gotta _hear the story behind that.

* * *

Daniel had often wondered exactly how killing so many 'gods' over the years would affect his Karma. Certainly being ascended _twice_ had to have had some kind of effect.

He couldn't help but think that perhaps the ascended were picking on him. How else could this crazy woman who'd beaten the crap out of him on their first meeting be here, holding his arm and almost merrily skipping along?

Resisting the urge to chide her, Daniel could tell that Vala was suppressing her anger. Daniel didn't like to do that… it led to places he wasn't comfortable being and over the years he'd learned to let his anger go.

He couldn't _really_ blame Vala. She'd lived longer than any of them and had been witness to some horrible things. Perhaps being so chipper and vampy was the only way she could survive.

At least she was being quiet, the surefire proof that she was repressing the emotions.

It wasn't long before they reached Teal'c and Vega, both standing guard over an area. "Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran."

Daniel nodded and wiped his hands. "So what've you found?"

Before Teal'c could reply, Cameron's voice carried through the trees. "Hey Teal'c!

Vega rolled her eyes and muttered. "_Duck_ _hunt_."

Teal'c turned to her, raised an eyebrow, and then ignored the quip. "Colonel Mitchell. You will wish to see this."

Cam walked up with Dusty beside him. "What'd you find?"

Motioning with his hand, Teal'c pointed to an area of the floor. Cam knelt down and looked for a second, and then saw it.

Leaning over, he pulled it from the ground and sighed softly. "A chocolate wrapper?

Teal'c deadpanned. "I believe it is a Snickers."

The group remained silent for a few moments, and Cam rubbed his forehead. "Okay… so someone was here. What does that prove?"

Daniel groaned as he realized that Cameron hadn't realized the implication. "Cam… it's a _Snickers."_

Still not getting it, Cam shrugged. "I prefer _Oh Henry_… the point?"

Daniel stared straight at him and asked. "Where are we?"

Cam looked around and furrowed his brow. "A forest?"

"Mmhmm… and…?"

Trying to capture where he was going with this, Cam looked to the others who gave him looks of suppressed laughter… except for Teal'c of course who remained impossible to read. "… Uhh… about 600 feet from the Stargate… about…" Suddenly realizing what was so utterly _shocking_ about finding a Snickers wrapper, Cam's face became stunned. "Uhh… Teal'c buddy. How far is this planet from Earth?"

Teal'c replied with no detectable humor in his voice, which meant that anyone else was laughing their ass off. "Approximately thirty seven thousand light years."

Cam gave Daniel a sarcastic grin and saw Vala suppress a giggle. "Kinda hard to litter at that range huh?"

Daniel nodded. "Uh huh. So whoever ate that bar most likely is the one who shot at us."

Cam, now feeling highly embarrassed clicked his radio. "Uhh Forensics team? Mind coming over? Got something for you." He looked around at the team around him who all had muted smiles and felt every last tease they would bestow upon him. 'Oh, come on… Honest mistake."

* * *

"That's _it?"_

Cameron shrugged in defense. "Better than nothing, sir."

Jack groaned softly and rubbed his face. "Carter gets shot, and you find _chocolate_ wrappers?"

Trying to avoid sounding insubordinate, Cameron deadpanned. "It _was_ offworld sir."

Narrowing his eyes, Jack growled. "I _understand_ what it means Mitchell… You find anything else?"

Another shrug. "The forensics teams are combing the area. If there's anything there they'll find it."

Wanting to blame someone, yet at the same time recognizant that he was _trying_ to blame someone, Jack growled softly and waved the Lieutenant Colonel off. "Dismissed…"

A few minutes passed, Jack enjoying being in this office again. This was where he'd become the man, and it was nice to know clearly where he'd come from.

"_Jack?"_

Even more, Daniel was here. "Daniel!"

The archeologist moved into the office and without asking sat down across from him. "Jack."

Seeing that he wanted to talk but didn't know exactly what to say, Jack mimicked him. "Daniel."

"How uhh… how are you?" The archeologist smiled as he looked to Jack. It was obvious that it was a fake smile though.

"I'm alright. Missed the old alma mater." Jack kept his voice calm, Daniel was trying to help.

"I'm going down to see Sam… I was wondering if you wanted to come with."

Still needing to coordinate with both Home_land_ security as well as the FBI and CIA, Jack sighed as he replied. "No can do, calls to make. I saw Carter earlier though so give her my regards."

Daniel nodded, and then as he got up he quipped. "Lunch later?"

Jack furrowed his brow. "It's past noon."

Rolling his eyes, Daniel said. "Dinner then?"

With a shrug, Jack kept his response short. "If you don't mind it at five."

"Of course, I'll find you then."

Picking up the phone, Jack smiled sarcastically at Daniel and cocked his head. "I'm sure you will."

Daniel furrowed his brow slightly, and pushing it aside, left the office quietly.

Jack hated it when people tried to delve into what he was feeling. It's not like he was a complicated man. Someone shot Carter, is probably going to shoot at an SG team member again, and they came from Earth. It didn't take a double PHD in astrophysics to understand how he was feeling. "This is General O'Neill… Get me the FBI director who oversees Fort Bragg."

Jack was lashing out at everyone, and it was high time someone other than his friends got in the way.

* * *

"Ow."

Daniel winced seeing Sam sit up. "I _am_ your best friend remember?"

Sam shrugged her head around a bit. "I know, that's why I'm sitting up."

The nurse who was replacing the fluids on Sam's drip stand smiled but resisted snorting. SG1 was legendary and she was impressed by their camaraderie.

Daniel sat down and rubbed his hands together. "Jack's here."

"I know. He came to see me." Sam left it at that. No sense feeding a dragon. "How's the investigation coming?"

Daniel could see that Sam was business as usual. "Well Cameron pulled a… Cameron. I'm sure Jack told you why he's here."

"Yeah… .338 Lapua Magnum is a serious round. I'm surprised I'm still in one piece." Sam winced in pain, then bit her lip. "Well… mostly." Sam was still mildly in shock over the revelation. "I guess I should thank the guys at Area 51."

Daniel nodded and winced as he stared at the cast. "How bad _is_ it? Don't tell me it's fine because it's obviously not."

"Hurts… but the morphine takes the edge off." Sam sighed and moved her casted arm a little. "I can move my arm already; Carolyn says she'll give me a steroid just to make sure the muscle grows back fully."

Raising his eyebrows, Daniel gulped. "Steroid?"

Sam laughed. "A weak one. Took some arm twisting but I got them to approve it." Sam made a horrible impersonation of an Austrian accent. "Don't worry, I won't go _Arnie_ on you."

Grimacing and shaking his head at the bad joke, Daniel shuddered. "That's a scary thought. You're tough enough already!"

The two teammates laughed together, and off to the side the Nurse couldn't help but wonder just much the two of them had been through to be able to joke around like that.

* * *

"General! Just the man I was looking for!"

Jack winced because his face wasn't visible, but then turned with an impassive face to the voice looking for him. "Bill… Good news would be… good." Dr Lee stopped and panted a little as the two men stopped in front of the elevator. Jack raised an eyebrow. "Need a break?"

Dr Lee shook his head and held his hands up as he explained. "No…No sir, I tried to page you but… the system's on the fritz and… I don't have time to fix it… and the repair crew is taking forever…"

Jack resisted groaning and just said. "… and so are you." Before Dr Lee could reply, Jack held his hand up. "At-tut-tut! One conjunction maximum per sentence! That's an order!" Seeing Dr Lee's confused face over his grammatically infused sentence fragments, Jack felt mildly satisfied that it had been worth the trip to Wikipedia.

Dr Lee took a few more deep breaths as they stepped into the elevator, he didn't even bother hitting a button and simply followed the General as he hit the button for the commissary. "Uhh yes, sir. What I wanted to tell you was that we've identified which ammo stock the bullet came from. It was from a shipment in 2003 used in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Most of that ordinance was either expended or stored away in munitions dumps across Iraq."

Pleased that Dr Lee had followed his instructions, but suddenly horrified that Bill was likely going to take his next words and turn it into an physics essay, Jack nodded and said. "How'd you track it?"

"Well sir, we did a model number search, a striations analysis, we even had it shipped out to the local CSI lab in order to do mass spec analysis using their database."

Having watched precious little TV, Jack looked over to Dr Lee and deadpanned with a slight smile. "Mass Spec you say?"

Dr Lee remained blissfully unaware. "Yes sir, they determined the stockpile. We're checking with local authorities over there but as you know, things like this fall through the cracks."

Jack simply remained silent instead of snarking back. Fissures was more like it. "Keep me apprised." Jack walked through the opening doors of the elevator and moved forward with a purpose. The commissary would have cake or he'd officially be having a _really_ bad day.

* * *

**_A/N:_** _Ohhh... Intrigue building up. What COULD happen next? Where'd the chocolate wrapper come from? Will Woolsey track the rifle down? Will Jack find cake? Feel free to tell me your speculations.. big green button right below ;)_


	4. Amity and Enmity

**A/N:** _Lucky yous. Long chapter. Have to wait a few days for next one but i think you'll want to know what happens next._

* * *

It had been almost a week and a half; Jack had even had to take to sleeping in an SGC cot again. He could have just gone to Minnesota and relaxed in his cabin, but he'd learned long ago that relaxing in a stressful situation dulled you. Being sharp and aggressive was the best way to deal with issues like this.

So when Woolsey finally called, Jack was more than ready to give him hell. "Dick… I thought you'd been buried alive in books. Shame."

On the other end of the phone line, Richard Woolsey rolled his eyes. The General had an acerbic sense of humor, but Richard knew he meant no harm. "I _have _been General. The amount of paperwork generated by the sales of arms is almost exponential. But I've tracked down not _only_ the sale of the rifle, but also that of the round you recovered."

Hearing Woolsey take a pause, Jack took the opportunity to relieve some stress seeing as the call had woken him up in his rack. "_Oh, _Do tell."

"Right… The rifle and ammunition was bought in late 2000 through the United States Marine Corp, then deployed with JSOC during Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of JSOC's operations."

Jack cut through the acronyms and got to the point. "Special Forces Assassin you mean?"

A moment's pause, and Woolsey replied with a slightly hushed tone. "We do not call them assassins General. That would be contrary to the rules of engagement. This rifle was used by some very skilled soldiers to seed confusion among the ranks of Saddam's regime."

It was all sugar coated, but Jack knew the score. Special Operations Command was the best the country had to offer… and the worst. "I'm not a reporter. Whose was it?"

"The unit that fielded this particular weapon is part of the 1st Special Forces Operations Detachment- Delta. The SFOD-Delta detachment has given me a list of units at the time who would have either used this weapon. I've emailed it to you."

Jack bolted up out of the bed and rubbed his eyes. There were things to do, people to yell at, and papers to be signed. All very generalish things, but most importantly there was now progress. "Thanks Dick. You really pulled your weight on this one."

Richard replied deadpan. "Seeing as I sorted though my weight in books, I would say so."

Jack smiled, Richard Woolsey may live up to his nickname, but he certainly had his moments.

* * *

Sam winced slightly as Dr Lam peeled the bandage off her injury. "_Ow_."

Carolyn gave Sam's other shoulder a soft squeeze of support. "Just a little more."

Nodding, Sam simply endured the pain and finally breathed out as the bandage came loose. "You know it hurts less when you do it fast?"

Peeling a little piece of the bandage that had gotten stuck to the bloodied wound, Carolyn said. "Not when your skin is sticking to it."

Sam snorted softly and pulled her scrubs up over her shoulders again leaving enough room for Carolyn to finish sterilizing the sealing wound for her new bandage. She often wondered what Janet might have said in this same situation and suppressed a sigh. "That's a pleasant thought."

"Oh, what's a pleasant thought? I want a pleasant thought!" Only Vala…. The pigtailed woman's head poked through the privacy curtain negating its effect and smiled at Sam. "Hey Sam! I brought you something!"

Carolyn groaned softly in her throat and cocked her head to Vala. "If it's food you can wait 5 minutes. I'm releasing her under the condition she take it easy." She then turned to Sam. "I have your entire team's agreement that they'll watch you. Break my rules and you'll feel my needles."

Sam snorted and chuckled. "I'll take that warning under advisement." She turned to Vala and nodded. "Just give me a few minutes. I'll be out."

Vala got a comical frownie face on, then nodded. "I'll be here!"

Sam leaned forward again and winced as the new bandage was applied. She was honestly just glad to have that stinking cast off. At least it wasn't on her leg and she'd have to shave.

* * *

"Carter. Good to see you up an'at'em."

Sam smiled at Cam's jest and motioned to the computer he was working on. "I'm up, maybe not at'em though. Whatchu doing?"

Cameron blew a hard sigh and drummed his fingers on the table. "Well since we're grounded and have to rely on everyone else for news out there, I'm getting some much needed reports done."

Sam looked around her lab, and saw no one else. "And my lab seemed the best place to do it?"

With a smirk, Cam motioned to the computer. "Well… it was unoccupied. I only ever get reports done when no one's around."

Sam chuckled, Cam reminded her of someone she'd worked with a long time. "I getcha. But I need my computer. So scram or at least get up."

Cameron chuckled and saved his report. "Yes Ma-am!"

Rolling her eyes at Cam's joking salute, Sam moved over to where her tablet with her latest work was still sitting. Now a thin layer of dust covering it. "Has there been any word?"

Cam finished logging off and got up out of the comfortable chair. "Just a bunch of paperwork. They tracked down the rifle and they're trying to find the unit that used it. You'd have to ask O'Neill about that though, he's been in and out of meetings all week."

Sam hooked up the network connection between her tablet and the desktop and opened the shared folder once the laptop booted up. "So nothing?"

Cam shook his head as he leaned on the table. "Seems like it."

Sighing softly, Sam brought up the latest information she had on a device SG-4 had recovered from an abandoned Goa'uld outpost. Sam's lips crept up as she turned to Cameron. "What about the offworld Snickers wrapper?"

Cam gave Sam back her shit eating grin and said. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up. They got a DNA pattern off it but without someone to compare it to…"

Sam chuckled at Cam's blushing cheeks and looked at the device. She was reluctant to try anything involving her protein marker, but with the directive to take light duties… "Cam… you didn't wait here for me just to keep an eye on me did you?"

The southern Lieutenant Colonel shrugged around a bit and tried to look innocent. "I could lie and say no, but Vala could only entertain you with her latest shoes for so long." Cam smiled. "Besides, I knew you'd end up here sooner rather than later."

Sam had only known Cam for going on a year and a half, but to be so predictable was either the sign of great friendship, or Sam just didn't like being predictable. "Thanks… I think."

* * *

Jack was antsy, he'd been locked up, or rather he'd locked himself into this room for hours now and even had to ask Walter to see if some lunch could be brought to him. The news wasn't exactly good, but it wasn't exactly bad either.

His old contacts at AFSOC had proven useful and he'd gotten a name. Retired Marine Major Albert Grant, a career soldier who'd taken an IED and an honorable discharge. Now Jack had the SGC's security detachment heading back from his house after "politely" asking him to come in for some questions.

Jack didn't suspect the man at all. In fact, after going over his record, he saw nothing but a top rated soldier. Someone who the SGC could have used. Instead, according to his medical files, Jack was about to meet a man who could barely walk.

The door opened, and a Marine Master Sergeant nodded to Jack. "He's here, Sir."

"Send him in, don't be rude." Jack knew the old Major must be worried, one didn't get called into the depths of NORAD for nothing.

The man who entered didn't look disabled at all. In fact, he looked quite strong and able bodied for someone who had supposedly survived a mortar warhead detonating beneath him. Those bomb proof suits really did work wonders Jack mused.

Even more, the man saluted sharply upon seeing Jack. "General, Sir!"

Jack was impressed. He'd have to see Woolsey about updating this man's files. "Sit down Major. I have some questions I'd like you to answer."

Grant didn't exactly go to ease, but he carefully took the seat out and sat down with his back straight. "Sir."

Quirking his face, Jack cocked his head, he considered putting the man at ease, but looking at the olive skin and lack of perspiration, Jack had a feeling that it wouldn't do any good. "Trip alright?"

With a nod, Grant said. "Uneventful, sir. Your men are professionals and explained what they could."

Now Jack knew he was in for a good time. Finally someone who knew how to get down to business. "Good. Now I'll keep this nice and simple. You answer my questions and you'll be out of here at a reasonable hour." Seeing Grant give a soft nod, Jack continued. "Marine, you were part of a JSOC operation in 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. During this operation you worked together with an SFOD-Delta team under the Callsign "Hammer" Do you remember?"

The Major nodded and shifted slightly in his seat. "Yes, sir. That operation was classified Top Secret."

Jack resisted snorting. "Well I'm 2 ranks above that, so tell me what happened."

With a pursing of his lips, Grant recounted his tale. "Sir, this marine was chosen to handle demolitions for said mission. We were to infiltrate an Iraqi village that held suspected members of Fedayeen command. Our mission was to locate and eliminate as many command members and munitions as possible with as little collateral damage as possible."

Jack nodded, this he already knew. "Go on. Be specific about who did what."

Grant continued. "Sir, we infiltrated village as planned and spread out. Of the five suspected targets in the village, four were eliminated with a direct action explosives charge. Two munitions dumps were destroyed as well and the fifth target was eliminated by long range support."

Here's what Jack wanted to know. "Good. Now do you remember who was the long range support?"

Jack could see the man did remember. It was hard to forget names of people you fight and kill alongside. "Lieutenant Lance Ridge, Sir. A fine marksman if I may say so."

This is where the information Jack had on that unit, and in turn the rifle ended. "Lieutenant Ridge retired after 2 more missions, and his equipment was reimbursed to him."

Jack knew a little known fact about many US Army soldiers, they often bought their own weapons and armor through the command structure to ensure they get what they _really_ want. Jack sure as hell had. "Lieutenant Ridge chose to keep his weapon at Fort Bragg, and eventually he sold it. This weapon was recently used in the attempted assassination of a USAF Lieutenant Colonel on a recon mission."

Major Grant's features hardened, a typical reaction of Marines. He didn't say anything though.

Jack sighed and pumped his fist a few times before speaking again. "I like being succinct. I _know_ JSOC. You form bonds. Family." And now Jack stated the real reason he had brought the now barely perceptible Major in. "Lieutenant Ridge's records end after two more JSOC missions with you. Three missions total equals almost six months together." Now it was Jack who hardened his features. "Where is he?"

Major Grant took a few seconds to himself, apparently debating whether to answer or not.

Jack took the initiative and pulled out a picture of Sam in her full dress blues taken recently. She looked professional, beautiful, and every bit the tough as nails soldier he knew she was. "This is the Lieutenant Colonel who was nearly killed. A bullet from Lieutenant Ridge's rifle was pulled out of her shoulder after penetrating her armor." Jack still saw the Major hesitate, so he brought the hammer down. "I'll make it simple. You tell me where Ridge is, and you leave. You _don't_ tell me, and we'll activate a little known clause of National Security. This woman has more honors than your entire JSOC squad put together, and dare I say it, she's saved more people than you'll ever hope of meeting. If I _don't_ find out where Ridge is from you, I'll find out from someone else. And i'd really don't want to bother anyone else."

It was the closest Jack could come to a threat without breaking the law, and it was obvious the Major understood. It took another second, but he replied succinctly. "Lance left JSOC to form a PMC. I work as a consultant for his corporation and send him viable recruits. He's a fair employer and I'm sure he'll be mortified to learn his old rifle was used like that, sir."

Jack now knew what he needed to know, and the _real_ investigation could begin. "Mortified you say? Let's hope." Jack saluted half sarcastically and almost growled. "Dismissed."

The former Major returned the salute, and got up out of his chair. His face spoke apology, but his posture said Marine. Jack had hoped that the man wasn't involved, but seeing as he worked for the man in question, the offer to hand him a non-disclosure agreement flew out the window.

* * *

When the alarm sounded, Sam was walking with Daniel up to briefing room where Teal'c was busy discussing Jaffa customs with SG-14. They both quickly recognized it as an unscheduled off-world activation and rushed into the control room.

General Landry was there, as was Teal'c who had come down in the commotion.

Walter was on top of it as always"Incoming wormhole!" He paused for dramatic effect as he always did. "Connection is good." The wormhole kawooshed open, and as soon as it had finished splashing back into a stable event horizon, the Iris closed as it always did.

A beeping began on the console, and Walter tapped a control. "Receiving IDC… it's SG-3, Sir."

Not a second later, Colonel Reynold's distressed voice came over. _"This is Reynolds! Under heavy fire and coming through hot! Need med teams now now now!"_

Sam recognized the tone of voice, and knew a man was either injured severely, or worse still, dying. General Landry noted it too and tapped Walter on the shoulder. "Lower the Iris.. let them through."

Walter nodded and called out. "SG-3, You are clear, repeat, iris is…"

Before he could finish, an Ori staff blast came flying through the gate and impacted below the glass pane. Landry held his ground and barked. "Lower the blast shield! Full security team to the gate room!"

Sam knew she wasn't in any condition to fight. She could still barely raise her arm above her shoulder level but even so, she still joined Teal'c as he rushed down the stairs to join the security team. Daniel was on her heels begging her to stop, but it was pointless.

More staff blasts were heard through the thick walls, a lot more than the other times an SG team had come under fire..

Teal'c and Sam made it into the gateroom to watch as the last man made it though the gate, and the event horizon closing behind him. Colonel Reynolds limped forward with one arm holding his chest, the other supporting his second in command, Major Teldy, who limped forward with bleeding wound on her head.

Behind him though, Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Greer held Lieutenant James Walker in his arms. The Lieutenant had a bloodied chest and his eyes were wide open in shock. Greer himself seemed unharmed, but very quiet.

Teal'c and Sam watched as the medical team quickly gave them a check over, with Reynolds and Teldy refusing treatment until the Lieutenant was looked after. They physically shoved the medics towards Greer and Walker with their faces contorted in a mixture of anger and pain.

Dr Lam rushed into the gateroom in her doctor's jacket. Obviously she'd heard the alarm and call for medical teams and feared the worst.

Greer moved forward silently and dropped the Lieutenant carefully on the now unfolded stretcher. The paramedics looking after him grimaced at the extent of the injury. The wounded man was breathing heavily if erratically, and his mouth foamed blood as his eyes went wide in shock.

Dr Lam moved in quickly, and waved negative to the orderlies who tried to move the stretcher. "No no! Right here!" She called out quickly. "BVM and get me a crash cart, _now!_" Donning a pair of gloves, and a surgical mask, Carolyn peeled back the ripped vest where it looked a bullet had penetrated. Her eyes went wide with surprise, but her voice was clear and strong. "Five CC's Morphine stat!"

Sam moved forward with Teal'c, A moment later Landry appeared behind them with two other guards. "Colonel! What happened?"

Dr Lam continued her life-saving efforts behind Reynolds as he and Teldy limped forward. "Ambushed sir… someone took a potshot at me and got me in the chest." He opened his vest and showed the cracked ceramic plate as he grimaced in pain and struggled to breath. "Made a ruckus and the Ori found us. Running fight all the way back, Took a staff blast but the energy plate took it." Reynolds winced hard as he leaned over and showed the General the burned area on his back. The disgusting smell of seared flesh made Sam wince slightly.

Landry looked behind Reynolds and saw Carolyn begin to get angry. She only ever got angry when she couldn't save a person. "And the Lieutenant?"

Teldy replied this time. "On our way back, sir. I took staff fire too; he pulled me up but took a round to the chest." She showed the General the burn mark on her lower back where the flexible energy plate had become weak and brittle from absorbing the energy from the Ori Staff blast, She bit her lower lip in pain as she continued. "These plates saved us, sir. But Walker…"

Reynolds had moved off now, standing over the stretcher where Lieutenant Walker was still convulsing. Greer stood by his side as well, blood soaking his shirt.

All was silent in the gateroom except for the rhythmic breathing of the dying man and the sounds of the medics working and quietly cursing. Reynolds could see clearly now that the round had missed the ceramic plate by only a few centimeters, A few centimeters and the Lieutenant would have just had a bad bruise instead of a bullet in his ribcage.

Dr Lam tried her best. She sealed off the wound with combat gauze to prevent anymore bleeding and gave him a mild sedative to calm his heart down. But it was simply too much and the damage was too great.

With a snail's pace, the lieutenant's eyes faded from focus and he achieved the thousand yard stare of shock. His breathing slowed, each breath a hard gasp trying to force oxygen into his savaged lungs. Nobody said anything as the rhythm slowed, and finally despite all Carolyn's efforts and bloodied hands, Lieutenant James Walker's breathing stopped. His eyes still open.

Carolyn cursed silently under her breath, and after a moment's pause turned to her orderly. "Call the time... cause of death… gunshot wound to the chest, exsanguination."

Landry closed his eyes, bowed his head and clenched his fist. Every soldier in the room uttered the same prayer, that somehow the Air Force Lieutenant had found peace after such a harsh end. Landry kept his voice soft and understanding. "Get cleaned up Colonel. Have your team report to me in as soon as you're ready."

Reynolds winced hard and hands fisted the cotton material of Walker's shirt. Teldy took her side by her CO and looked furiously emotive for a soldier, which amounted to a hard grimace of wrath and slightly trembling posture.

Sam couldn't help but see the similarities, and seeing the damage to the armor plates, and how badly wounded both the Colonel and Major were, knew that more than likely the round that would be extracted from Lieutenant Walker's chest as well as the damaged slug from Reynold's armor would come back as Earth manufactured munitions.

It finally clicked in her head, and she knew why she'd been the one who took fire.

Someone was hunting high ranking SGC personnel… and they were doing it off-world. Lieutenant Walker had been a target of opportunity.

* * *

_**A/N:** Uh oh... This story's taken a dark turn. Who is this mysterious Lieutenant Ridge and what does he have to do with what's happening? What will the examination of the bullets from Reynolds and Walker reveal? Will our team figure it all out before tragedy strikes again? Will i ever actually give an answer without bringing up another 2 questions?! Click the alert button... and find out... eventually _^_^


	5. Confusion and Succinct

_**A/N:** A million pardons for the late update. Both I and my beta have had some RL issues but rejoice, back to normal (somewhat). I'll be nice and release the next chapter on Wednesday if ff . net will comply :)_

_MASSIVE thanks to Sealurk for the beta, this chapter was problematic for me but between the two of us, we got something quite cool._

* * *

All off-world activities were suspended, and every team recalled except for the Gamma site, Alpha site and other classified research centers. It had been 2 days since Lieutenant Walker's death in the gate room and the entire base was still feeling the impact. Forensics still hadn't finished on the autopsy and ballistics and most of the base was curious as to what the investigation would yield.

Jack had been surprisingly elusive to his former team, only popping up in the commissary, and quickly updating them on what he was doing, but not what he'd determined. That is until now.

Sam was sitting patiently in the briefing room, as she'd often done in this sort of situation. One of the key traits of being a long-term member of an SG team was knowing when to have patience, and knowing when to panic. The first was always, and the second was never.

Her entire team sat around her, with Jack silently organizing some papers as he prepared his briefing. Sam didn't know Jack to be a happy paper pusher, so seeing him become almost obsessive with it was scary.

She'd kept up with him of course, though e-mail was only a friendly thing and she'd had to teach him how to use his Blackberry properly. It seemed so strange but for a man who could be so smart at times, the small device was more confusing than a Rubik's cube.

Across from her, Teal'c sat patiently as well with his hands held together almost in prayer. He seemed undisturbed by Jack's motions, but Sam could tell he noticed it too.

Daniel was the obvious one who was nervous, as was Vala. Cam just sat there with his teeth clenched ready for fight or flight.

Finally, Jack began to briefing. "You all know me… I keep things short and sweet. Someone's hunting our people off-world, and they're using weapons built on Earth to do it." Jack waited a second for dramatic effect, then handed out the folders he, or rather Walter had prepared.

The team each looked at the papers and were curious. It was information on a corporation on Earth. Daniel scratched his chin and asked. "RedScope Industries? What is this?"

As trained soldiers, both Sam and Cameron both knew what this company was. Cam put the folder down and grumbled.. "It's a PMC."

Seeing the majority of the team drawing a blank, Sam explained to the others. "A Private Military Corporation. They contract mercenaries as well as civilian contractors out to governments and professional armies. The US uses them a lot over in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Vala rubbed her temple, obviously confused. "I thought your people were peaceful. I mean… I know you've had wars, but mercenaries? That's something you'd only hear about on fringe worlds."

Teal'c seemed equally intrigued. "Indeed, I have not heard of such a business on Earth before besides "The A-Team." Are they an independent group?"

Jack shrugged as he noted Sam, Cam and Daniel all stifled their snickers. Jack himself hid behind a slight grin. "They're basically a private army, T. Government controlled yes, but anyone with the money can hire them. We've been using PMC's for years. Mostly guard duty."

Sam scratched her head as she read the company profile. "I can't say I've heard of them… I've worked with Blackwater before back in the day but never RedScope."

Jack nodded. "They're new, but making a mint according to the taxmen upstairs."

Vala's attention instantly piqued. "Really? Your world pays well for mercenaries? Because I have a lot of friends who…."

To everyone's joy, Daniel held his hand up and gave Vala a pointed look. "Vala… Please?"

The black haired woman pulled a face, then sat back down. "Yes yes of course."

Jack gave Daniel the barest edge of a smile and the archeologist swore vengeance once more. "Yes well… _We're_ not paying them."

Teal'c replied to everyone's amazement. "Then they do not work for your military?"

Jack cocked his head and looked impressed. "You watch too much TV Teal'c. You're right. They don't work for the United States or any other nation. But they do work for another corporation."

Cameron leaned forward and asked. "Which corporation?"

Another shrug, and Jack sat back down. "Dunno. That's what we're going to find out." Jack opened his own folder and scanned it for the information he wanted. "The rifle that we've tracked down came from a Lieutenant Lance Ridge. He bought the rifle because he wasn't happy with the M14 we gave him during JSOC operations in Iraqi Freedom, and afterwards opened RedScope Industries."

Sam tried to remain impassive, it wouldn't do for her to show emotion despite her near death experience. "So he's selling Earth weapons off-world? How would he do that, sir?"

Flexing his fists, Jack finally decided he'd drop the bombshell he wanted to. "Dunno, that's what we're going to find out." He idly wondered if it was possible to mimic himself in speech patterns. An odd thought, but dammit it was his!

Everyone looked at each other, they couldn't help but notice the way Jack had said it. Daniel was the first to speak. "We? As in… us?"

Jack smiled his trademark shit-eating grin. "Yes Daniel. We as in us, as in, We, the six of us."

Sam pursed her lips, but she let Cameron ask the question. "All of us, Sir? What exactly can _we_ do?"

Continuing his smile, Jack stared at Cameron. "We're going down to their headquarters to ask."

Vala pulled another face and scratched her chin. "Ask? As in "Oh excuse me, did you happen to sell any guns to some people with a space ship or who walked though a giant ring?""

A few chuckles from the group, but Jack kept completely composed. "Actually, yes."

Teal'c held his hands in front of him as in prayer. "Your plan is to infiltrate the corporation to ascertain if they have indeed been supplying arms to off world clients?"

Jack nodded, he was happy when his plans were simply and easily understood like this. "In a nutshell. We'll ask politely, then not."

Vala mused happily, finally understanding what Jack was talking about. "Oh I get it! You're going because you're a general and command respect from everyone…" She looked to Daniel. "… Daniel's going because he can charm the ladies."

Daniel winced and smacked his forehead quietly.

Vala continued. "…I'm going to charm any men in the way, Sam's going because she can probably get information off their computers…"

Sam smiled sarcastically. Her shoulder still hurt, but the diluted tretonin drip had worked very well and despite still feeling tender and soft, the wound had sealed and she felt she could return to active duty. It would be years before such a treatment reached the general public as there were still the possibilities of long term complications, but Sam was glad not to be walking around with a hole in her back anymore. "Nice to be useful."

Vala then finally turned to Teal'c. "… And Muscles is going just in case everything else fails!"

Feeling left out, Cam cried out. "Hey! What about me?"

Vala turned, then looked between Cam and Daniel several times like a chipmunk deciding which nut to take. "… You'll have to share the girls with Daniel. Work it out with him."

Cam winced and groaned softly. The group chuckled a bit but then Sam said. "Some of us should go incognito. The less they know about who's actually asking questions, the better."

Jack nodded and looked to everyone. "I'm going as myself, but you should each change into civvies and come up with some fake names." He then looked to Teal'c. "I hope you've got a hat T."

Teal'c turned to Jack and nodded

Daniel furrowed his brow. "Are we going to see the return of 'Murray'?"

His face showing a small degree of pleasure (which for Teal'c meant he was ecstatic.) Teal'c replied. "Why choose a name beyond that which I have already chosen Daniel Jackson?"

Sam stifled a snort, to which Jack gave a pointed look. "Sorry." Sam then bit the inside of her lip and struggled not to laugh.

Cameron noticed the odd reactions of everyone else and said. "Uhh am I missing something? Who's Murray? And how's Teal'c gonna walk around out there with his uhh.." Cam used two fingers to signal his forehead.

Teal'c again gave a barely perceptible smile, and he turned to Jack signaling the general to reply. "Murray's an old friend of mine. And I'm pretty sure _Teal'c_ will be _just fine_."

With the barest edge of a smile, Teal'c gave Cameron a stare.

* * *

Cam stifled his snicker as he watched Teal'c step out of the locker room looking like something from a Seventies cop show. "Teal'c… you look like Inspector Gadget!"

Teal'c narrowed his eyes at Cameron and adjusted his Fedora Hat. "Is this not what your people wear when they wish to remain inconspicuous?"

To the side, Daniel bowed his head and palmed his forehead. "He's fine Cam… Personally I'm more worried about you!"

Cam shirked his head back in mock offense. "What? I'm just as normal as anyone else."

Jack was standing off to the side in his dress blues with Sam next to him in hers. They'd both decided to go as who they actually were, seeing as if the PMC was involved, they knew who their target was.

Vala was dressed somewhat provocatively, a leather skirt that reached just below her knees with a rather revealing seam in it. Her top spoke confidence of the highest degree though in a business sense. She was the epitome of someone who had money and knew what they wanted.. "Cam… you look like a Bullboy."

Sam snorted at the misrepresentation worthy of Teal'c's first year on Earth, to which Jack gave a look that conveyed both his amusement and orders to remain calm. "Sorry, sir." Sam bit her lips and motioned to Vala as she struggled not to laugh seeing Daniel bite his thumb to keep from laughing as well. "Umm Vala… that's _Cowboy_."

Vala's face lit up and smiled. "Oh that's right. You people have such strange colloquialisms for boyish men."

Cam gave Vala a sarcastic grin and adjusted his cured leather vest. "Well I _am_ pretending to be a reservist from Missouri who wants to join."

Jack took that moment to regain control. "Alright. Role call. Major General Jack O'Neill!" Jack smiled sarcastically at them all, then ended on Sam with a sharp look.

Sam stopped slouching on the wall and stood straight as she smoothed out her Dress Blue Skirt. "Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter. aide to Major General Jack O'Neill." The corner of her mouth quirked up a bit, and while Jack's eyes said he was amused, his brow said to keep calm.

Daniel sighed off to the side ad muttered in a passable German accent. "Ich bin Dietrich Eckhart, Reporter für die Berlin-Zeitung, die eine Geschichte auf PMCs im Irak tut."

Everyone but Jack gave Daniel confused looks, to which Jack simply groaned softly and pointed to Vala. "Right, and you are?"

Vala furrowed her brow to Daniel's oddly smiling face and deadpanned. "Confused." Seeing the entire group stare at her, Vala caught on. "Oh Right! I'm Vanessa Malfoy, and I'm looking to become an investor in RedScope Industries."

Finally turning to Cameron, The Lieutenant Colonel spoke in a slightly exaggerated drawl. "And I'm Major Hunter Strickland, Just finished ma second tour over in Eye-Rack and lookin' fer some work in the private sector."

Everyone resisted groaning at the horrible accent, and Jack just gave him a cold stare. "I'm not bailing your ass out if you get caught."

Cam seemed to understand what Jack was talking about, and his accent changed somewhat. "No problem, sir. Keep it toned down."

Everyone nodded now, the accent was _much_ more believable and surprisingly natural. Sam mused to herself that it should be seeing as Cam had spent quite a lot of his youth in the southern United States.

Jack resisted rolling his eyes and looked to Teal'c. "Murray?"

Teal'c nodded slightly and tugged softly on his trench coat. "Indeed."

* * *

"Lam cleared you?"

Sam nodded softly, it wasn't often she was in a limousine and it showed in her slight nervous twitch. "Yes, sir."

Jack tried to refrain from saying something he shouldn't. "You armed?"

Patting her thigh, Sam again nodded. "P229. Wish I had a Zat."

Patting his briefcase with his foot, Jack smirked slyly. "Zats and Intars."

Sam chuckled and looked out the tinted window. DC always was home to her but it had been a few months since she'd been back. "How's Homeland Security been treating you, sir?"

Jack shrugged, and leaned over to open the little fridge. "Same as ever, coordinating, signing papers, sitting around on my slowly fattening ass." Jack groaned softly in his throat. "I blame the cake."

Sam smirked, but didn't let Jack see it. "Yummy."

Jack smiled, but he didn't laugh at Sam's way of being friendly. "It's nice to stretch my legs. Just wish it were better circumstances."

Sam turned back to Jack, and for a moment wanted to reassure him. But Sam knew Jack could tell just by looking at her. "Thank you, sir."

* * *

"I'm sorry, sir. You'll have to wait till I can get a translator here. Sorry!"

Daniel pretended to be frustrated which ironically wasn't that difficult and uttered some ridiculous speech in German. "Wenn Sie nur wissen würden, wie erniedrigt ich das tat, würden Sie sich nicht sogar damit aufhalten, mir diese unechte Zuvorkommenheit zu geben, ja?"

The blond receptionist blinked at Daniel's words and shook her head. "I'm sorry sir." She slowed down her speech and enunciated loudly. "YOU…WILL…HAVE…TO…WAIT!"

Deciding to get back at the braying receptionist even more, Daniel replied in the same annoying tone. "ICH… BIN… BERLIN… NEWS… IRAQ!"

The receptionist furrowed her brow for a moment, but then realized what he meant as Daniel tapped his pad. "Oh you're a reporter! Or a Journalist?" She made hand motions signaling writing, and then grabbed a magazine and pointed at it gingerly. Daniel resisted yelling in frustration and nodded. "Well you'll still have to wait for a translator, but I'll see who can come and deal with you."

Daniel bit back his snark and said politely in German. "Wenn Sie nur wussten, wie dumm Sie klingen. Es ist Leute wie Sie, die mich erinnern, wie glücklich ich anderswohin aufwachsen sollte."

The receptionist smiled and nodded politely. Daniel couldn't help but feel frustrated over the receptionist's ability to treat him like a child. "Yes, I'm getting someone for you." She motioned to the side. "If you could please have a seat?"

Daniel fought the urge to laugh or even smile and sat down. His clothing felt strange. It had been awhile since he'd worn "civilian" style clothing and it felt… _too comfortable._

The welcome area that guarded the glass doors behind the receptionist were unusually nice. Daniel had been to fortune 500 companies that didn't have luxury like this. As he sat down, yet another receptionist came and offered him freshly squeezed orange juice with a piece of pineapple stuck to the top of the glass. Daniel nodded politely and "Danke"ed the friendly looking woman.

Blowing a soft sigh, he ran his finger along the leather couch he was on and was impressed to find it was real. Definitely RedScope had been getting a lot of money from _somewhere_.

The plan was actually quite simple. Since Daniel had just been stonewalled, Vala would enter and demand to speak to someone regarding investments. Once anyone was inside, they'd stall and figure out as much as they could before calling in the marines.

Daniel knew that Vala would likely just generally confuse any security to give them more access, he'd hoped to get in himself and use language barriers but alas…

One by one they'd try over the course of an hour, and to improve their chances, Woolsey had orchestrated a large number of telemarketing calls as well as other technological inconveniences for this company. In all the confusion, it was hoped they could ascertain more information about this company.

If all else failed, Teal'c would come in and be… Teal'c. Cameron was expected after Sam and Jack to try and get deeper inside while pretending to be a recruit. Major Grant had been… _convinced…_ to give him a glowing letter of recommendation.

Daniel waited about 12 minutes before the doors opened and Vala entered Despite her attempt to remain relatively inconspicuous, her clothing and general demeanor. Her posture was contrasted by her look though. If confidence could be tangible than Vala was oozing in it.

The receptionist at the desk finished the call she had and looked up at Vala. "Yes Miss? How may I assist you today?"

Vala pulled down her sunglasses enough for the receptionist to see her pupils. "My name is Vanessa Malfoy… I wish to speak to somebody about investing in your company."

Daniel could see the look of somewhat dejection the receptionist had. Already, she'd been answering calls, attending to people here on actual business, dealing with the numerous inconveniences Woolsey had orchestrated, and still trying to find him a translator. The fact that the amount of stress was only going to go up almost made Daniel feel bad for her.

"Oh I'm sorry Miss, most of our higher level staff are away on business. I can ask our floor supervisor to see you, but it will be about half an hour before he's free."

Vala narrowed her eyes, and then cocked her head over to the security guard to the side. "Very well… I can wait."

The receptionist stifled a sigh, and put the small note she was taking among the twenty others already posted on her monitor. "You can wait in the lobby and someone will come see you as soon as possible."

Vala smiled with no small hint of distaste, and then wandered off. As if drawn by magnetic currents, she leaned on the wall next to the guard and began. "chatting" him up.

Daniel felt sorry for the guy, Vala could be… _very _persuasive. Of course Daniel himself had never really fallen for it, though on occasion he did wonder what Vala _truly_ wanted with him.

Another 14 minutes passed before Jack and Sam entered. Both of them were ramrod straight and very professional looking. That is except for Jack's ruffled hair but Daniel figured Jack was just glad to still _have_ hair in his slowly aging years.

It surprised Daniel, Jack had always been sort of an older brother to them all. His experiences would have broken many other men, yet he still maintained his irreverent personality and supreme control of his emotions.

Daniel was glad to know him, and it was mainly because of the now-General that Daniel had learned to fight, to defend what he believed in. Even more, Jack had been a friend when none others would.

The General walked up to the receptionist and towered above her. "Good afternoon. I'd like to speak to whomever's in charge here."

The receptionist continued babbling into her headset and held up a finger. Jack's expression went wide and he turned to Sam incredulously. The Lieutenant Colonel could only shrug in response.

After another twenty seconds, she turned to the pair of officers. "Welcome to RedScope Industries, How may I assist you?"

Jack smiled his sarcastic grin and repeated himself. "I'm Major General Jack O'Neill and this is my aide, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter. I'd like to speak to whoever's in charge."

The receptionist nodded her head pedantically and seemed to recite from memory. "Oh I'm sorry General, If you're looking to hire some of our people you're going to have to make an appointment. Most of our dealings are with private customers and not the military though."

Sam remained impassive. If someone had hired these people to take a shot at her…

Jack on the other hand kept his cucumber cool. "Actually no. I'm here investigating why a bullet my medics dug out of a subordinate came back as coming from a rifle your company bought."

The receptionist's eyes grew wide, and she tapped the cancel button on her phone. "Oh dear… Yes I'll get someone down here as soon as I can!"

Jack kept his face impassive. He knew that it was likely that whoever was upstairs, or rather downstairs as RedScope seemed to operate on a sub-level theory, would know more than a simple receptionist about what was going on.. "Thank you."

"Please take a seat, I'll get someone down here immediately."

Jack motioned with his hand for Sam to move first, She nodded politely and held the briefcase by her side. They sat across from Daniel and tried not to look at each other.

That is except for Jack, who stared Daniel straight in the face. Daniel could feel the tension in the air rise and tried to defuse it. "Guten tag Herr General."

Jack gave Daniel back a shit eating grin. "Howdy."

The conversation ended there, with the secretary busy directing calls, working on her computer, and asking for someone from management to come down to see Jack as well as an interpreter. Her hair which had been straight and very well maintained 25 minutes ago had slowly become to get undone, and despite the insanity of the moment, she looked relatively calm. Then again, Relative was the key operator in Sam's thoughts.

Daniel was on the other hand about to snap when he saw Vala slink over to one of the security guards and begin to "flirt" with him. The guard almost scoffed, but he smiled anyway as he was entertained by Vala's definition of "flirting". Daniel felt sorry for the guy.

Before five minutes had passed, the penultimate attempt to get inside unseen began. Cameron made a ruckus as he pounded through the revolving door at the front, and generally made his presence known. With a giant smile and eyes that spoke confidence, he walked up to the receptionist and drawled. "Afternoon there Missy, Ol' buddy'a mine back in 'soiri tol' me 'bout this place. Where'd do I sign up?" Daniel prayed to God that the accent worked. He knew very little about the southern states but it sounded reasonable to him.

The receptionist was already frazzled dealing with the sudden busyness of the hour, so when she heard Cameron her voice began rather tersely. "Excuse me sir, I…" As she turned to face him, the instant change in her demeanor was almost enough for the others to break their cover and start laughing. "I…" The receptionist leaned into the phone. "I'll have to call you back. Yes,.. Yes I'll do that." Putting the phone down, She smiled at Cameron. "I'm sorry, it's been very busy today. You said something about wanting to apply?"

Cam nodded and kept his calm and unproblematic demeanor. "That's right little lady, I done 2 tours in Eye-Rack and wanna see what yer bosses offer. Ol' buddy'a mine. Al Grant tol' me to swing by and take a look-see." Cameron produced the letter the old Major had written for him and pointed out the signature.

The Receptionist seemed genuinely happy to hear that. "Oh! Major Grant sent you! Oh that's lovely. We actually could use people like you right now." Her smile became something a little more suggestive and she pulled her chair out slightly. "If you could follow me?"

_That_ got everyone's attention. The tone of voice was _very_ suggestive and even the way her posture changed told very clearly what she had on her mind. Sam bit her lower lip preventing her laugh at seeing the look of utter obsession in the receptionist's eyes, but Cameron didn't show any of the shock he must have had… unless he didn't see it. "Well aren't you just a sweet young thing? Lead on!"

Jack turned slowly to Sam whose smile was threatening to break her composure. "Something amusing Colonel?"

Almost enough to break her control… "_Very_, Sir."

As the receptionist took Cam's arm in hers and led Cameron through the glass doors, a trio of men came through and nodded politely. The lead one, a rather stocky young man in a business suit came with two larger men, their suits bulged near their shoulders showing they were armed. "General O'Neill?"

Jack hardened his features and stood. Sam stood as well and took her position to the right and behind him. "Yes… and you are?"

The younger man was a little shorter than Jack, but his thicker frame and ramrod posture said soldier. "Robert Peters, Ex-US Army Corporal. I handle security here at RedScope."

Jack's fist curled slightly, It hurt to know that the people working here were ex-servicemen. "Uncle Sam not paying enough?"

The man chuckled once and rolled his eyes slightly. "Something like that. How can I help you General?"

Jack cocked his head slightly to the side and smiled. "In a sentence, why did I find a bullet from a rifle your company bought in one of my soldier's bodies?"

* * *

_**A/N: **OMG. What will the team find in RedScope Industries? How will Robert Peters react to Jack's question? Will Cameron ever be seen again? All this and more, in the next chapter of…_

**Occupational Hazard.**

As always, reviews are love ^_^


	6. Reaction and Ventilation

_**A/N:**__ Again, thanks to Sealurk for the beta. He was quite entertained by this chapter which I think means you will be too :D Definitely a change of pace from before! Early update to make up for the late one last time :D  
_

_To DP: Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it!_

_To Amen: All very true :) .338 Lapua is borderline Anti-Material round so it's definitely a step above a 7.62, either 39mm or 51mm. And yes, 500 feet is not that long a distance for anyone trained to shoot… ;)_

* * *

Watching Peters for a reaction, Jack was careful not to divulge who'd been shot, or their condition.

The less they knew he knew, the more they might think he knew and the less they'd suspect that Jack knew much more than he was supposed to know, even though he didn't actually know nearly enough to say that he knew what was happening or… something. Jack's line of reasoning sometimes could be rather confusing even to him. That's one of the many reasons he liked being succinct.

Peters narrowed his eyes suddenly, and he looked at both Jack and Sam. Despite trying to hide it, both officers saw the hint of recognition in his eyes as he looked at Sam for the first time. "… A rifle from our company?"

Jack saw that things were about to take a rather unexpected turn, and he made a small motion to Sam. The Lieutenant Colonel began to tap her foot loudly which was the signal to both Daniel and Vala that things were about to hit the fan. She also subtly tapped her pocket where a small transceiver activated silently. One tap meant backup, two meant all hell breaks loose.

Jack looked back at Peters this time with a little more anger. "That's right. Can you answer that or should I put my official hat on?"

Peters turned his head to the men beside him and spoke somewhat tersely. "General, I have nothing but the highest respect for you. But coming down here and accusing us of…"

The doors behind Jack opened, and as he lost focus on Peters he realized that another three security guards had flanked them. Anger had just led him to a rather precarious position… that is if he didn't have backup all over the place.

Teal'c, demonstrating his usual perfect timing, entered with a strong posture. The security guards instantly bristled upon seeing someone even bigger than _they_ were.

He wasted no time and instantly questioned the nearest security guard. "I am looking for Lance Ridge. I have many questions for him."

The security guard did a slight double take at Teal'c manner of dress, and groaned softly. "Yeah yeah so does my mother." The guard attempted to grab a hold of Teal'c jacket as he moved forward

Grabbing the security guard's hand without any show of effort, Teal'c narrowed his eyes. "Then I and your mother have the same goal. I have asked politely. I do not wish to ask again.

Peters groaned at the chaos taking place, he looked around and saw several of the guards distracted by Vala as she spoke to them all, keeping their attention quite focused. "Alright that's it." He turned to his personal guard and motioned to him. "Get these people out of here _now."_ Peters then turned to Jack with half a scowl. "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and let you state your case. If you'll follow me."

Jack looked over to Sam, who in turn waited until the security guards moved ahead to look back to Teal'c and give a short almost imperceptible nod.

Peters led them back towards the office areas, and within moments they'd been seated in a rather open area with several people watching. Jack and Sam shared looks and with slight facial tics and motions, communicated that the plan was going ahead.

Outside, Teal'c continued to stare at the largest security guard who faced him. "I have no quarrel with you or your friends, I simply wish to speak to Mr. Ridge regarding some irregularities at my place of work."

With a scowl, the guard said. "Oh really? And that would be?"

Unblinking, Teal'c replied. "I am not at liberty to say."

"Oh really? You some kinda national security? Where's your badge?"

Still holding back, Teal'c stared. "You do not have authorization to view my credentials."

Daniel had now noticed that Teal'c was pretty outnumbered, Vala was distracting about four guards now, but the seven in the room would be difficult to take on should things get… _aw crap. _"Hey! Ich bin eine get the fuck out!"

Daniel pretended he hadn't understood the guard. "Entschuldigen sie mich?"

The guard leaned in closely and hooked his thumb to the door with a menacing face. "Get. The. Fuck. Out! Go on! Snell! Snell!"

Feeling offended that his fake mother tongue was being massacred, Daniel was about to start arguing when he saw a body fly past him onto the wooden table nearby.

As the table collapsed under the weight of the security guard, all hell broke loose with it. Daniel spun around and tackled the guard escorting him out, hoping that the surprise attack would give him a chance to go and help….

"_Yahhh!!!"_

To Daniel's surprise, a pair of the guards who'd been distracted by Vala suddenly dropped, one clutching his groin with a face of pure agony, the other holding his neck as he keeled over onto the ground.

The two remaining guards turned and were greeted by Vala's rather astonishing flailing attack of fury.

Daniel ran over as fast as he could, having to dodge yet another body flying through the air as the guards tried and failed to envelope Teal'c.

Striking from behind, the element of surprise worked well as Daniel tackled the larger of the two guards now threatening Vala.

The smaller guard had just pulled out his tazer when he felt his torso in a vice. With Vala's hair in his face, he had no chance of defending himself.

Vala had leapt up and caught the man using her thighs and was quickly laying a multi-directional smackdown all while squeezing the air out of him, Daniel finished the stunned larger guard by cracking a nearby vase over his head.

Daniel cried out to Teal'c whom he saw now walking forward to grab a hold of the larger security guard who had attempted to assault him. "Teal'c! What happened!?"

Picking up the man by the collar, Teal'c turned to Daniel. "General O'Neill and Colonel Carter are in danger. We must assist!"

* * *

"He knows."

Sam nodded softly as she sat and waited. "He recognized me."

Jack cautiously took out his cell phone. "Only two bars." Jack spun the wheel on his Blackberry and clenched his teeth. "This place is shielded, we won't be able to call for help down there."

Sam clicked her tongue, and motioned down to her leg where she held the transceiver in one hidden pocket.

Jack narrowed his eyes in a "wait" gesture and looked up at Peters who had moved off to talk on his phone. "He tries to corner us… hit it."

Sam nodded again and kept an eye on her surroundings. The area was relatively Spartan, yet what was there was very high class. Sam noted that the chair she was sitting on was rather comfortable and the frame of solid wood. It had been ages since she sat on a real wooden chair on Earth..

Glass panels surrounded each cubicle inside, and inside each cubicle was either a table or a computer. Overall it looked very much like an interview area. Sam didn't realize RedScope had gotten so large. "Must be pretty profitable, lots of nice stuff."

Jack summed it up in a single phrase. "War is money."

Turning to Jack with a suddenly awed expression, she could see that it was something the man had thought about for a very long time. She wanted to say something, anything to agree or even add to the sentiment. But Jack had summed it up in the lowest possible denominator and there was nothing further that needed to be added.

Finally after what seemed like a long time, Peters approached them. "General, if you could follow me please?" Both Jack and Sam got up, but Peters held one hand up. "Just the General please."

Jack leaned forward just slightly in order to look imposing. "Where I go, she goes."

Sam resisting smiling, but seeing Peters shake his head she now worried. Splitting them up meant they didn't know for a fact what was happening to the other. Sam realized it was a good move if you were looking to get someone out of the picture.

Looking to Jack for guidance, the anger in his eyes said it all. She tapped the transceiver again and took a deep breath, Teal'c would get the signal and all hell would soon break loose.

Peters didn't know any of this as he replied back to Jack. "We only deal with command level staff General. Since this is a delicate issue, Mr. Ridge would prefer to only speak to you." The look Peters gave Sam passed for a well hidden scowl. "You can remain up here while the General speaks with Mr. Ridge. I can even have one of my associates take you on a tour of the facility."

Jack growled softly, but before he could say anything a loud scream was heard from outside in the lobby. Peters spun around with two guards getting to their feet.

It was obvious the team had gotten the message and was coming for them, Jack turned to Sam and gave a simple nod.

Peters was exposed, and Jack didn't hesitate. His right hand came up and then down in a hard chopping motion to Peters' back knocking him to the ground unconscious.

Sam reacted instinctively with a forward kick using her thankfully relatively flat shoes. She was surprised by Jack's hostility, but feeling the guard in front of her's stomach against her ankle told her this fight was going to be over fast. Sam would _never_ stoop so low as to aim for a groin shot when she knew she could win fairly, It just wasn't soldierly.

The second guard moved forward towards Jack and lunged with his hands, Jack ducked and managed to land a single punch against his ribcage before having to fall back. The Guard was only minorly affected and grunted as he chased after the General.

Sam quickly finished the guard she'd kicked by using the briefcase as an uppercut device snapping his head back and knocking him over a potted plant bringing it down with him. He landed with his arms around the plant and his tongue sticking out of his mouth,

To both Sam and Jack's dismay though, another trio of guards rushed down the hallway as the office workers ran for the emergency exits. They were armed with stun guns and there wasn't time to pull out the Zats or Intars.

Just as Sam had decided to pull out her P229 from it's hidden holster, Jack screamed into his radio implanted into his ear canal. "Teal'c! Where are…?!"

To both of their surprise, the glass doors separating them from the lobby shattered and the largest security guard from outside flew into the room as if catapulted.

Taking cover, Sam took the confusing moment to open the briefcase containing their weapons. Teal'c stepped through the door calmly despite the intensity of the fight around him. The glass of the broken door crunched beneath his feet. Jack had to admit, the Jaffa could make one hell of an entrance. "Teal'c!"

The three guards rushing forward had been stonewalled by the shocking arrival of reinforcements, it was long enough for Sam to toss Teal'c a Zat and pull a pair of Intars shaped like Berettas out for her and Jack.

It was a quick fight with each soldier taking either an Intar bolt of Zat blast. The office workers had all fled the scene and it was relatively quiet now.

Jack couldn't help but muse. "Well... easier than usual."

He heard a soft growl from Sam next to him, and turned to the glass door separating the initial office which according to the map on the desk led down to a deeper office and elevator. Daniel and Vala walked up, both now armed with policed weapons from the guards they had knocked out. "Daniel, call Woolsey, get his team here _now!_"

Daniel gave Jack an incredulous look. "I don't have his number. I don't suppose he's in the yellow pages?"

Jack groaned as he pulled his phone from his belt and tossed it to Daniel. "Speed Dial number 2, he's got a Marine riot squad on standby down the block. You and Vala hold the fort here, No one in or out that's not with us."

Daniel wasn't technically a soldier, but he knew a good order when he heard it. "Got it." He quickly turned and dialed from the address book, Vala covering him with the tazer she held in her hand.

Sam furrowed her brow as she covered the interior of the building with her Intar shaped like a standard USAF issue Beretta 92FS handgun. "You have Woolsey on speed dial, sir?"

Jack nodded and looked back into the lobby at the level of destruction left from the earlier attack. "Along with the SGC, the President, and my baker."

Sam winced in mirth for a moment, but then Teal'c stepped through and looked around at his handiwork of RedScope Industries' lobby. "Colonel Mitchell?"

Jack shook his head. "Dunno." He tapped his ear where the temporary radio had been fitted inside his ear. "Mitchell! Where the hell are you?"

* * *

Cameron held his hands up in both a form of defense, and surrender. He had the irresistible urge to scream "Red Light!" given his current situation. When Vala had joked around about it, he never expected it to ACTUALLY happen. "Uhh listen little lady… I…"

The receptionist took her glasses off and set them down on the little shelf in the closet they were in. "You want to get in. You do this for me. I've had the _worst_ day ever and I can make sure you get a _good_ _position!_"

Cam didn't exactly like the way she enunciated _'good position'_ and realized what a mess he'd gotten himself into… _again._ "I'm flattered… but aren't you worried about your job? If someone catches…"

Before he could finish, the rather attractive receptionist planted her lips on his and wrapped her arms around his torso. Cam didn't really have it in him to shove her away, but he didn't make any forward movements of his own.

She began to slide her hands up and down his sides eliciting a shiver, and through some magic act of sleight of hand, Cam felt his jeans suddenly drop to the ground exposing his smiley face boxers.

She pushed him back deeper into the room, Cam's feet stumbling out of his pants. She bent down to pick up his now free jeans. She murmured in a singsongy tone. "You won't be needing these. Hunter."

Cam watched in horror as she tossed his pants over her shoulder. They landed half on a vent system and half in the room.

This was just _way_ too unexpected and Cam didn't know what to do, well he _did, _but at the moment he was cornered in a closet with a potentially insane receptionist. Dropping the drawl, Cam quickly said. "Listen, I _really_ need to get back out there! I'll be glad to take you to dinner or wherever after you're done work, but I kinda have stuff to do _now!_"

Not missing a beat, the receptionist flicked off the first button on her blouse. "Oh you do have _stuff_ to do."

Cam's hormones screamed at him. But the soldier inside won out and Cam finally managed to push past her. "Listen… woo boy… I'd _love_ to get together after… but I've _seriously_ got to get back out there.. so uhh…" As Cam reached for his pants, the vent suddenly turned on and sucked in the air it demanded… and his pants. "Aw _dammit!"_

The receptionist giggled and went to hug Cam again. "Aww poor baby. It's only a few feet. You could probably reach it to grab them…"

Cam squirmed out of her reach and lifted up the cover of the vent. It was on a spring and it'd be difficult for him to hold it and reach down. "Uhh… Little help?"

The receptionist giggled and held up the door. "Sure thing…" Cam leaned into the vent, and saw the slight shine of the emergency flashlight he carried reflect in the weak light. He eased himself into the vent to reach, almost.. "Yah!"

Feeling the receptionist whose name he didn't even know's hand slid up his thigh, Cam shuddered at these ridiculous situations he kept finding himself in since joining the SGC. Cam began to wish he was dealing with the Lucian Alliance or even the Ori instead of this ridiculous situation. _"Do you mind?!"_

Her fingers danced, her smile was insane. "No, not at all."

Cam was just about to begin cursing a blue streak when he heard a loud smash from outside that sounded distinctively like glass breaking… _a lot_ of glass. "What…"

Just as shocked as Cam was, the receptionist pulled back and covered her mouth with her hands… unfortunately letting the spring loaded door down right on Cam's posterior.

It was the spank from hell and Cam couldn't fight gravity. He yelped loudly as tumbled forward into the large vent face first down several feet towards his pants.

The fall wasn't that bad, but from his suddenly dark position, Cam rolled into the vent and fell through the winding tunnel. His pants were shoved deeply into his face and he now had absolutely no clue where he was.

Just as he'd composed himself and began cursing, General O'Neill's irate voice came through on his ear piece radio. "_Mitchell! Where the hell are you?"_

Cam looked around, and spotted a sliver of light up ahead. He knew he was going to get in shit six ways from Sunday, and the worst part was in this position in the cramped vent, there was no hope of getting his pants back on.

He tapped his earpiece and groaned. "Not sure, sir. I'm sorta stuck in the vent system … long story. What's happening, sir?"

"_Vent system?" _Jack's voice was incredulous. _"This isn't Alien, Mitchell, get outta there! The shit's hit the fan and the marines are coming in."_

Groaning dejectedly, Cam began to crawl his way forward towards the light ahead. "Copy, sir! I think I'm on the first sub-level. I'll try and… _Whoa!!!!"_

In the dark recess of the vents of RedScope industries, Cam had neglected to notice the large T section of venting right in front of him and went face first even deeper into the gusty labyrinth.

* * *

"Forget it. Let's go."

Jack pulled his hand away from his forehead. The headache building from hearing Cam shuffle about in the vents would have to wait.. "Teal'c, lead the way."

Teal'c nodded and double checked the Zat Sam had handed him. "Would there be more security inside the complex?"

Sam nodded as she grunted softly, then ripped the dress she was wearing to allow more leg swing room. "Probably, they might be armed with more than just tazers so we'll have to be careful. How long until backup arrives, sir?"

Jack had opened his eyes wide as he got an eyeful of Carter's toned right thigh through her ripped skirt. For the first time in years he hesitated with his answer. "Uhh…"

Sam gave him an innocent look, then a soft knowing smirk as she realized what she'd just done to him. "We should move out anyway. If they do too much damage to their servers we won't be able to recover any useful data."

Teal'c nodded and pulled his hat off. "Indeed." He moved forward and set the hat down on the lampshade of the receptionist's desk as he moved forward. Jack simply remained quiet as he hopped ahead of Carter so he wasn't distracted by her.

Sam for that matter was struggling not to blush. Dammit, she'd torn the skirt so she could move effectively! Perhaps she should have waited a second, but the look on Jack's face was priceless. She only hoped that the cameras in the lobby had picked it up.

Teal'c pushed open the glass doors of the first floor and looked back. Daniel and Vala waved their acknowledgements and stood guard. Jack and Sam moved ahead, Zats and Intars in hand and primed.

The floor was relatively easy to map out from this position. A longish hallway with glass offices and a security station at the end next to the elevator. 2 guards with batons rushed forward upon seeing the trio.

Jack scoffed softly at the useless gesture and fired a pair of shots quickly stunning both men. The electrical energy wrapped around both men before dissipating into the ground.

Office workers screamed at the sudden commotion, and the sound of gunfire drove the three SGC members to take cover. The glass of one of the offices shattered raining little knives over the office workers as they scurried past the trio, intent on getting outside.

Jack could only hope that Daniel and Vala could somehow hold them all back, but he knew that the people would just be caught by Woolsey's squad outside, further delaying their backup. "Carter! How long do we have?"

Sam rolled underneath a desk and fired a pair of shots suppressing the guard who used his handgun to hold them back. "Not long, sir! Depending on what they do we may or may not be able to recover much useful data!"

Right above Sam, the wooden desk began to splinter from a hail of shots. Jack took the moment to lean out and get off a well aimed shot that short circuited the light in the security office where the shots were coming from. Sparks rained down and the guard was momentarily stunned.

The trio moved ahead quickly, ducking through offices and cubicles to take cover. Finally, Teal'c managed to squeeze off a shot that knocked the security guard back and over his chair, unconscious.

Finally quiet(ish) Sam got up from her defensive position and inched forward, gun at the ready. "Clear!"

Jack and Teal'c moved ahead covering each other as they cleared office after office. The people had left and now nobody was at risk… at least on this floor.

Sam rushed into the security office and began to work on the computer system after tossing away a bag of chips that had been sitting next to the keyboard.

Jack stood above her and nodded to Teal'c. The Jaffa searched for a button on the elevator but found none. "There does not appear to be a call button."

Sam shook her head and put on the same headset that the security guard had had. "No… it's a secure elevator. Their system is on lockdown but I just might be able to…" She began to type code onto the computer screen, every time she hit the "shift" key, the sound of crunching came back, it slowly expanded out to the "A" and "S" key as well as "Z" and "X"

Jack found it maddeningly annoying as not only were Sam's fingers flying across the keyboard making noise, but the constant crunching sounded like she was chewing on celery or something. "What _IS_ that?"

Sam didn't even slow down as she replied. "Chips, sir."

Jack furrowed his brow as he looked at the screen. "Computer?"

Sam snorted and shook her head, the screen turned blue as Sam examined it. "Potato, I think." She motioned her head back to the guard. "Total slob. You'd be surprised how much you can learn from a person from examining what's under their keyboards, sir."

Slightly disturbed by the odd phrase, Jack simply shuddered. He noticed Sam wincing a little as if in pain but held back from saying anything. She knew what she was doing and he was no longer her direct commander.

It was improper for Jack to even be here, but he'd insisted on making a show to this PMC and whoever was hunting them that they weren't scared. If both he and Sam, high level targets Jack assumed, were ballsy enough to walk in and demand to know who was shooting at them. Well… the element of surprise was a hell of a thing. "What are you doing? Elevator?"

Sam nodded as the blue screen switched around, she was quickly inputting commands and running a finger along the screen. "I'm putting the system into a diagnostic safe mode so I can bypass their first level security. A few changes in the BIOS should do the trick…"

Jack simply blinked at the odd computer language Sam used. _"Elevator?"_

Sam realized her error, and winced as she put it in layman's. "In a word, yes."

Nodding absentmindedly, Jack peeked out and saw Teal'c policing the weapons off the security guards. Down the hall, the yelling and the barking of orders was heard. "Looks like our backup is…"

As Jack spoke, the elevator dinged behind him. Teal'c instantly moved to the other side of the doors as Jack did the same to his side, and they waited a second before acting.

Two armed men stepped out, and both Jack and Teal'c clothes lined them with swift forearm strikes to the neck. Teal'c's man went down instantly from the blow, but Jack's was able to shirk down and lunge towards Teal'c.

The Jaffa grunted as the stun gun got him in the gut, but instead of downing him as the guard thought, Teal'c simply growled and used a stronger backhand punch to send the man flying back into Jack.

The General stepped out of the way and held his foot up tripping the man. He fell over in front of Sam in the security office. Sam finished the man off by closing the door into his head knocking him fully out.

Jack examined the two men, they were armed with Berettas and stun guns, as well as simple Kevlar vests. "Rent-a-cops… if this is the worst they've got we should have no problem."

On cue, Sam's voice called out. "Problem!"

Jack groaned and looked through the window. "No, _really?"_

Sam ignored the quip and reported. "I've gotten limited access to their servers, but personnel files are only accessible from the main server downstairs. I've managed to disable their main power grid by sending the control system into a defragmentation cycle. It'll keep their built in system from hard deleting their servers and even organize it all for us later."

Jack blinked once, then cocked his head and muttered. "Magnets?"

Sam snorted softly and tapped a few more keys on the keyboard. "Actually yes, but that's not the biggest problem." She motioned to the screen and scowled as Jack leaned over the window to look at the screen.

Jack clenched his jaw and summed it up in one word. _"Crap."_

* * *

**A/N:**_ OMG. What did Jack see on the screen that has him worried? Will Cameron ever find his way out of the vents? And what will the team discover in the dark recesses of RedScope Industries?_

_All this and more in the next installment of…_

**Occupational Hazard**

As always, reviews are love and incentive to write faster :)


	7. Recognition and Timing

**A/N:** _As always, let us never forget **Sealurk** for the amazing Beta services. if i could hire him as a full time beta and editor i think i might :P_

_I got a ridiculous amount of writing done, so i'm posing this early as a "Thanksgiving" Treat or something... :P Enjoy y'all  
_

_For those who think the receptionist is a little insane, just imagine watching it on TV. SG had some absurd moments (anyone remember Anise/Freya?) and i'm striving to match the SG style of story (admittedly a little more humorous)  
_

_I'm very very __very thankful for all teh alerts, reviews, faves, PMs :D I just considered that if anyone wants to add it to an archive feel free._

_Thanks to all readers! I'm quite ecstatic that you're all enjoying this!_

* * *

Cam felt he was waking up, but in reality he'd been fully conscious for the entire trip down the winding shaft. He curiously wondered who the hell made a curving air conditioning shaft.

Groaning as he tried to roll over, Cam was finally able to reach down to grab his emergency flashlight on his belt. Finding it missing though, he realized that once again, he'd lost his pants.

Even worse, the cold of the metal made his bare legs shiver. At least this time he wasn't handcuffed to a…

Pushing the memory aside, Cam shook his head clear and looked around. The sounds of men stomping on the ground beneath him through the ceiling warned Cam that more than likely, he'd be needed soon.

* * *

Jack racked the first round into the Beretta and slid it into his belt, the safety was on so he wasn't worried about shooting himself somewhere delicate. "What floor is this supercomputer on?"

Sam tapped the second last button on the elevator panel and replied. "Bottom level, sir. But like you saw, there are men armed with MP5s and shotguns guarding it. I think I've got a way around them though."

Jack calmly breathed in and out; Adrenaline served its purpose, but now was the time for calm. When he'd seen the heavily armed and armored squad of what appeared to be soldiers setting up a defensive formation, he'd been taken back to his old days in Special Ops. Using anything and everything to win the battle.

It had been a hard fact to swallow, but for the first time in 10 years he would be directly engaging Earth based forces. Men who were born on this planet without the rule of a Goa'uld forcing their hand. Men who fought for money, or other reasons he couldn't help but find distasteful.

A long time ago and a completely different Jack O'Neill would never hesitate to do what needed to be done, but these weren't brainwashed Jaffa or some other force of off-world corruption. This was good old fashioned Earth corruption and it reminded Jack that his home wasn't the rose garden he'd often come to think of it while working at the SGC.

He didn't want to kill any of those men, likely men with families, but if they had no other choice, the Marines would be right behind them and hopefully this would all be over soon. He turned to Sam hoping, expecting her to have come up with something inspired. "Whatcha got?"

The cheerful elevator muzak was an odd background to the violence of the moment, and Sam felt oddly elated as a particularly cheerful melody played. "If we can set off the fire suppression system down there, the water will act as a conductor and a Zat should be able to stun them all in one shot."

Jack groaned knowing what was coming. "But?"

Sam shrugged a bit and sighed. "But… there's no way we'd be able to get close enough to do that if we take the elevator. We're going to have to try and get through the second last floor to the stairs on the other side of the floor to sneak up on them."

Teal'c spoke up now as he took off his trench coat. "Should we not await more reinforcements?" Jack decided to do the same and flung off his Dress Blue suit and hung it on the arm support nearby. He loosened his tie and shoved it into his pocket as well freeing himself up for more action.

Sam shed her own jacket and rolled up her sleeves. With the ripped skirt she looked more akin to an urban commando than a lieutenant colonel of the Unites States Air Force. "They've probably already begun deleting their files, we should be able to recover most of it but we need to stop them from doing any permanent damage. If we can sneak around that final guard station, we'll be able to let the backup upstairs deal with any stragglers." She turned to Jack and nodded. "That is assuming you agree, General."

Hearing the term "General" reminded Jack just how bad his knee was going to hurt after this, and even more, that this wasn't where he was supposed to be. "Agreed."

Teal'c simply looked to both soldiers and nodded his approval. A moment later, the elevator stopped the doors pulled open to reveal a long corridor with several offices and hallways. This was the heart of RedScope Industries and Teal'c led the trio as they slinked in.

* * *

Cameron had tried three different ports to try and escape the vent system, but none of them were weak enough for him to break through or had too many people around to get out safely.

He'd considered breaking through, knocking out a guard and taking his pants, but given his current soreness level it was unlikely.

He'd also fallen down another two vents, albeit on purpose this time since he wanted to keep up to the rest of his team. They'd obviously head straight down to the bottom level where the computer servers were.

Cam didn't know how much help he could be without any weapons and in his current attire, but damn it, he wasn't going to…

The sounds of gunfire from above him warned him that something bad was happening, and unfortunately in his position, there was no way to know exactly what was going on.

Cam decided to keep crawling forward in the hope of finding an end to this ridiculous escapade, he'd already run into a pair of dead rats and he wanted _out_ of this metal labyrinth.

* * *

Seeing the fish tank in front of him shatter like a fragmentation grenade of glass and water, Jack's instincts took over and pulled Sam down behind the heavy wooden desk with him putting them both behind cover

Teal'c did the same on the other side of the hallway, the automatic weapon's fire raining down at them was a little more than they were expecting.

Jack growled as he hid the pain hitting the floor gave him, and after a second or two, the lull in the incoming fire gave Jack the chance he wanted.

Banishing the pain in his knee, Jack lifted up and used his shoulder to flip the desk into a makeshift bunker, he took cover using the alcove where a chair would normally fit and popped his head up.

There were two heavily armed men at the end, they wore body armor and were armed with MP5s. Jack raised his Intar and while missing, suppressed them from the shock of seeing flying electrical bolts.

Quickly he ducked back down to avoid the incoming spray of fire, Sam next to him cursed as she swatted small pieces of torn wood that got stuck in her hair. "How many, sir!?"

Jack flinched to side to avoid a flying piece of a pen that skimmed past his face and growled. "Two, they're using a big cabinet for cover!"

Sam nodded, then took a few deep breaths. "Cover me, sir! I'll flank 'em!"

Jack looked over at Teal'c and saw him in an even worse cover position. He could have taken it upon himself to move out, but he knew better than to tempt fate given his physical condition.

Two years sitting on a desk in the Pentagon had softened him. Not _too_ much, but enough to know when to let others do the heavy lifting. He turned to Sam and with just a moment of hesitation nodded. 'Alright. Go go go!" Sam gave one nod, then jumped out from behind her cover to the next desk. The bullets didn't follow her path and Jack knew he had to keep attention on him and Teal'c. "T! Covering fire!"

Jack knew Teal'c would understand, the Jaffa warrior had been fighting since Jack was in diapers which was a _really_ disturbing thought. Together, they leaned out and sent a hail of electrical fire down the hallway suppressing the two armed guards.

It was odd, Jack would have suspected there would be more civilians down here. But the place was curiously empty except for armed guards. No matter, less civilians meant better rules of engagement for him.

Sam waited two seconds, then crawled underneath the desk to the next office. She waited another two seconds before vaulting over and rolling to a stop next to a rather large flower pot. The guards hadn't seen her.

Jack and Teal'c continued firing, the Jaffa warrior silent throughout most of the exchange. Jack had missed this so much, the action, the adrenaline. He could do without the twinge of pain in his knees or the blisters his dress shoes had likely formed, but overall he was having a somewhat fun day.

A few more seconds of exchanging fire and two loud screams were heard. Jack waited until he heard Sam's voice "Clear, sir!"

Jack got up and moved forward with Teal'c covering his six. He tried vainly not to stare at how Carter had gone from a prim and proper Dress Blue Lieutenant Colonel to a rather… well something that screamed _'Hormones" _in a rather loud and annoying voice.

Sam for that matter didn't even notice as she policed the weapons off the guards and tied them up using their own equipment. "Looks like that's it on this floor. We might be able to get deeper access into their system from here."

Jack weighed the possibilities, certainly by now the Marine Team would be on their heels. "Do it." Jack watched as Sam stepped over the fallen guards and entered their small office, her skill with technology far outweighed that of anyone else Jack knew, and he looked to Teal'c. "Check the stairwell at the end, stay quiet."

Teal'c nodded and moved off, Jack bent down and picked up the MP5 one of the guards had used. Jack had rarely ever used this specific weapon, but for a moment he was lost in thoughts of holding a P90 for so many years. Inside the room, Sam called out. "Sir!"

Picking up the two spare clips left on the body, Jack replied. "What is it Carter?"

Sam tapped on the keyboard and her smile grew. "I've got almost full access to security systems, sir. These guys forgot to logoff."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "That's… good I'm assuming?"

Sam nodded. "We can set off the sprinklers from here. Teal'c can probably sneak down easier than we could as a group."

Nodding his head, Jack tapped his ear and activated the radio. "Teal'c, come in."

A second passed, and Teal'c voice came back quietly. _"General."_

Jack shuddered for a moment, for seven years Teal'c had always referred to him as Colonel, hearing 'General' coming from Teal'c mouth always creeped him out ever so slightly. "T, buddy, sneak down and get a good vantage point. Once the water hits em, take em down."

Jack heard a '_psst'_ sound and turned with a curious raise of his brow to see Sam downing a can of diet cola. Teal'c voice was an odd background as Sam set the can down and continued working as if nothing was odd about that. _"As you wish."_

Sam wiped her mouth and finished up the last few changes to the security system she need. "I'm ready, sir. On your orders."

Jack looked around as he heard the odd noise or two, and held the MP5 ready to fire if needed. Standing behind Sam, he watched on the video feed as the guards on the last floor, all heavily armed and in well defended positions stood ready at the entrance to the server room.

A minute passed, and finally Teal'c came in over the radio. "_I am in position. The guards have not noticed me."_

Jack put a hand on Sam's shoulder and nodded as she turned to look up at him. "Do it."

Sam raised her finger and with just the hint of a smile, hit the enter button on the command prompt she had open.

On the video screen, water suddenly began to spray out from the ceiling in large conical formations. The entire guard formation was shocked from the strange occurrence, but before they had a chance to react, a bolt of Zat energy flew up and connected with the sprinkler system.

The energy spread out along the water and sent the entire column of guards into stunned spasms, within moments, the highly defended position was little more than wet paper, soaked body armor, and the strange sensation of calm _after_ the storm..

Jack mused to himself as he watched on the screen. "Well… that was easy."

He'd spoken too soon, as the second he finished speaking another figure became visible through the sheets of water. It was large, black, and oddly.. "Sir!" Sam's voice had nearly squeaked, she knew _damn_ well what that thing looked like. "…It's a Kull Warrior!" Sam's breathing slowed for a moment, and in her mind she relived an entire day's worth of painful memories in seconds. She closed her eyes, counted to 5, and found herself back in the present with Jack right beside her... They'd defeated one of these together before, they could do it now.

Watching closely, they saw the armored figure move forward and fired bursts of energy pulses out of its wrist. Jack squinted and made out what looked like a suit underneath though. "No… someone's just wearing that armor."

Proving his point, the armored figure moved about in a very human way, even trying to dodge the Zat blasts that came at it. _"I am under fire! My position is tenuous at best! Require assistance!"_

Neither Jack nor Sam had to look to each other to react, Sam unholstered her sidearm and grabbed another from the fallen guard. Jack rushed back towards the stairs with MP5 and Berreta in hand.

It was doubtful that the Zats would have any effect, but since the person wearing the armor was human, a lucky bullet shot might do the trick.

To their surprise though, the sounds of gunfire suddenly filled the area. Jack clicked his radio onto the general frequency and heard marines screaming orders.

"_Cover fire! Cover fire! Hold it back!"_

"_Jesus, incoming incoming!"_

"_The hell kinda ray gun is that?!"_

"_Stay down! Don't let it hit you!"_

"_Fall back! It ain't goin' down!"_

Jack didn't focus on the screams of the men fighting or the cacophony of bullets and intars, instead he focused on getting them out and getting to Teal'c. He knew Sam would be thinking the same and he banished all the pain in his joints as he kicked open the door to the stairwell.

It was a mad rush down, but within moments both Jack and Sam were on the bottom floor of the facility ready to add to the fight.

Jack used his head to signal, and both breached into the room seeking cover.

A hail of energy landed near them, and both leapt to the floor behind photocopiers and other various electronic equipment. Despite the heat of combat, Jack still saw Sam shiver suddenly and shake her head as if warding something off.

Jack swallowed hard, then rolled from behind his cover and fired a pair of bursts from his stolen weapons that he held akimbo. The 9mm bullets pinged off the Kull Armor, sparking impressively, but none penetrated. Jack continued his roll behind a computer desk just as the top section of it burst into flames from incoming plasma fire.

"_Shak'ti'qua!"_

Jack didn't understand whatever language the person was speaking, but he certainly got the hint that it wasn't a human language, and that it was Goa'uld. It sent a shiver down his spine that flowed through into his arms and legs.

Sam leaned out and fired four shots from each handgun before being suppressed, then yelled. "Sir! It's a Goa'uld!"

Off to the side in a less defensible position, Teal'c continually tried to score a good hit against their attacker, but his Zat was simply absorbed by the armor. "Our weapons are having no effect!"

The marines had been completely suppressed. Fires raged despite the sprinkler system from the constant outpouring of fire.

It all seemed so sudden, the fight had been so easy and now Jack was wondering if perhaps he'd gone in over his head, risking his team… his friends, all for what in the end amounted to a simple intelligence gathering mission.

Just as Jack prepared to give the order to fall back, a scream came from up above, in fact, it seemed to be coming from the ceiling.

The man in the Kull suit grunted in confusion and looked up, but before he could do more than arch his head up, the entire ceiling around him caved in and several hundred pounds of building materials along with a figure broke through on top of him.

If it were a real Kull Warrior, the attack would have been futile, the regenerated bodies of the Kull had proven strong enough to even survive even a missile strike, but since it was just a man inside, _this_ attack proved quite successful if somewhat unorthodox. Through the mix of dust and water clouds, a southern voice cried out triumphantly. "_Yeah! _Alien _always_ beats Predator!"

Jack recognized the voice, and standing up he gave an annoyed grunt. "_Mitchell!?_ The hell'd you…" Raising his eyebrows in shock, Jack swore he could hear Sam stifling a snort from beside him. "…Where'd your..?" Seeing that there was no way this conversation could possibly end well, Jack simply sighed dejectedly and looked over to Sam. "Carter, Get in there and see what they did to those server things. Me an' Teal'c'll deal with Snake Boy and Colonel Smiley Shorts here."

Sam was already blushing as she stood, but actually seeing Cam it was hard to restrain her laugh. "Umm.. Yes… Yes sir…" She bit her lip as she walked forward past an unashamed smiling Cameron. Teal'c had taken a defensive position by Jack and looked at both the fallen Kull warrior and Cam who stood there shivering in his boxers.

Cam stared at Sam dead in the face and muttered. "Not a word Sam…"

Sam swallowed her snicker and simply smiled as she held up a hand. "Three times Cam… That's three times now."

Standing there with every cheek on him blushing, it was made even worse when Teal'c bent down, removed a slab of ceiling tile to reveal something he'd seen sticking out. "I believe these are yours Colonel Mitchell."

A year and a half ago when Jack had given command of SG1 to Cameron, it had been a risk. Cam was unknown, a fighter jockey and while a damn good one, a nearly crippled one at the time. The odd report that arrived to him about SG1's successes and foibles had all signaled that Cam was indeed a good addition to it, but nothing spoke to that so well as Cam's… "Nice Timing Mitchell. Talk about… _fashionably_ late."

To Jack's delight, Sam's final cracking and snort from across the room was exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

* * *

**A/N:**_ So the mystery has begun to unfurl… What will Sam find on RedScope's servers? Will interrogation of Peters and the Goa'uld yield anything? Will Cameron ever be able to live down losing his pants yet again?_

_Find out in the next installment of…_

**Occupational Hazard**

As always, reviews are ^_^


	8. JellO and Questions

_**A/N:** Big thanks fo the ever-mighty **Sealurk** for the beta. What i miss in SG, he catches :P I'm still waiting on my beta for the next chapter so it might take a few days.  
_

_To the Cam lovers, he will get less comical "soldier" scenes from now on. This fic is primarily Team with a focus on Jack and Sam, but i'm not going to forget that Cam is awesome in his own right._

_For those who are not technically minded, the computer stuff mentioned here is real. Even if you use a magnet, you can always recover something. Not much, but something.  
_

_I estimate 4-5 more chapters and a short epilogue.

* * *

_

"_So General, in your opinion, is this operation FUBAR or just a SNAFU?"_

Jack accepted the ice pack from the Marine Corporal/Medic in urban camouflage and put it onto his knee. "Neither, there weren't any casualties and Carter's working on getting the information we need."

Woolsey's voice on the other end of the line seemed rather terse, which for a man like that, meant he was fuming._ "I should hope so, the President is rather annoyed with the report that just crossed his desk regarding the Air Force taking policing matters into their own hands."_

Jack winced both in slight pain, and realizing that the President was likely going to give him a stern talking to. "Had to be done, they'd have wiped everything clean if we went through official channels."

Around him, the employees of the company had been rounded up and led to questioning vans; The Municipal police had done their duty and apprehended anyone fleeing the scene. They likely weren't involved but questions still needed to be answered.

Woolsey replied in his typical calm tone._ "I hope you're right about this General. Where before I was drowning in paperwork, the red tape is rising."_

Jack smiled, Woolsey had slowly been becoming more and more of a friend, and he had to admit, the man could be witty. "And I appreciate it. Now about the people we've apprehended, I want SG1 to conduct the interviews."

"_Are you sure that's wise General? I can have Agent Barrett conduct…"_

Rolling his eyes, Jack said. "No. I want SG1 to handle this. We're the ones getting shot at, we're the ones who'll get to the bottom of this."

"_Need I remind you General that you are not a part of the SGC anymore?"_

Jack clenched his fist and decided not to take it personally. Woolsey was right, and Jack had to accept that. "No… but this has to do with Homeworld Security and last I heard, that _is_ my job."

"_Touché. But when a Major General gets involved in a firefight in downtown DC… people begin to ask questions."_

Running his hand through his hair, Jack kept his voice calm. "Noted. Now was there something else?"

"…_No. I simply wish to save both of us some grief. Homeworld Security IS your purview and I can only give you suggestions. Speaking of which, I do recommend you bring more of your people into this."_

Jack thought about it. There were only a few people he trusted and few were those he worked with. "I'd rather use SGC Personnel. Less chance of anything leaking out. If I need anything else I'll be sure to contact you."

"_Very well General. I will… run interference for you. Do not speak to any reporters or journalists."_

Jack finally got up and stretched his shoulders. His clothing was dirty and torn up, so he looked forward to getting into some BDUs. _"Oohhhh… perish the thought."_ Turning the sarcasm down, Jack finished his thought. "Once this is all over we'll get some coffee."

"_I look forward to it General. Good day."_

The phone clicked off, and Jack holstered it on his belt. He looked around and saw most of his team loitering around the receptionist's desk. It was time to take control.

* * *

Sam took a calming breath and continued the mantra in her head. _"Only a hard drive… only a hard drive…"_

She reached into the server hub one more time, and got a good hold of the remaining hard drive in the now disabled server. It had gotten caught in something and she was getting more and more frustrated trying to get it out.

The technicians at Langley had brought their data recovery equipment and she now worked diligently. It sucked being the only technically minded person with clearance but alas… this was the life she chose.

She'd just gotten to the point where the hard drive was sticking, and with a light grunt, she yanked it out, breaking the small screw holding it in place.

The back of her shoulder felt like it was on fire. She'd likely injured herself doing this but it wasn't anything that wouldn't heal. It was ironic really, she'd survived yet another dangerous combat situation only to get hurt while working on computers. Science could be a dangerous life.

Just as she stepped down from the little stool and put the hard drive onto a static free bag, she heard the door nearby open. Turning, she saw Jack walk into the room with a barely noticeable limp. She could only imagine how sore his body was from the suddenly intense action. "Sir, do you need some…" She noticed him carrying something in his hands and her eyes grew wide. "Where'd you get that?" It was odd to see him in dark BDUs, but she herself had changed into overalls that now only served as pants with the top half tied around her waist. The opaque white chemise she wore was a little tighter than she was used to, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Idly she wondered if there was a mirror nearby to see how she looked. Probably like a grease monkey.

Jack smiled softly, very rarely did he ever grin and show his teeth but it looked like it might just happen this time. "Oh this?" he held up the pair of Styrofoam plates, one holding a large brick of blue Jell-O, the other a slice of chocolate cake. "Well this place _is_ shut down, Can't let their cafeteria go to waste."

Sam screwed her face realizing what he meant. "You raided their fridge?"

Mimicking a classic line of his hero, Jack mused. "Possessions are fleeting."

Now with a grin, Sam accepted the Jell-O and set it down away from the… whatever it was she was working on. "Thanks, sir. I could use a break."

Sitting down opposite each other, the normally sterile room was now enveloped in the smell of blue dye number #14, and the delectable taste of processed chocolate frosting. "Yes, you could." Jack made a subtle motion to her shoulder, where he'd just noticed a quarter sized red blotch. "You should get that looked at."

Sam sighed as she looked at it, and questioned exactly what Jack was doing. On the one hand he was being a responsible leader, on the other, he'd likely brought the Jell-O just to prevent her from logically arguing with him. It was maddening when he did this. "I will; Nothing a band aid won't fix." She defiantly ignored her pain and picked up the fork to cut a piece of Jell-O away. "Your knee okay, sir?"

Jack refrained from narrowing his eyes. Sam could always defend herself even when she showed care. "Tight. Ice helps." Changing the subject now, Jack took a bite of his cake and motioned to the large object on the desk. "This big box thing is…?"

Sam mashed the Jell-O in her mouth, savored the taste for a moment before swallowing and explaining. "We were able to stop them from using their electromagnetic deletion system, but they still scrambled most of their files using a handheld device. Most of the data is still intact but it's very disorganized. So I'm putting them all into a storage server and using their own system here to defragment it all and recover personnel files as well as accounting."

Jack nodded as if he knew what Sam had just said. "Carter… as much as I've learned from those "Science for Dummies" books you got me for Christmas last year." He paused to allow Sam a smirk. "I'm still trying to get the difference between a PC and Mac besides better games."

Sam breathed in deeply and thought about how to explain it. "Alright sir… basically, a hard drive works by aligning…" she stopped, and realized that it had to be even more layman. "…okay. When you put something into the recycle bin in your computer, it doesn't actually delete it. Even if you click empty recycle bin, the file is still there."

Jack nodded, "With you so far."

The smell of chocolate was maddening. Sam had often wanted to just pig out especially after an injury or a tough mission, but she knew she had to be in peak physical condition to survive off-world… and it wasn't her diet cheating day today! "Even if you delete an entire hard drive, fill it with something else, then delete it again, file remnants from the first write will still be there." Jack nodded, still understanding. Sam motioned to the system behind her. "What they've done is a combination. They've jumbled up all the files in their system by deleting and overwriting, as well as passing a smaller magnet over them. It's done considerable damage to the files but I'm hoping that our equipment will be able to recover enough useful data."

Jack understood enough that this was the reason they were here. "You don't say?" He smiled, took another bite and then continued. "How long?"

Sam blew a hard sigh sending the loose strands of hair in front of her face about. "Awhile… they had about 5 terabytes worth of data, all scrambled, so unless I can bring this all to Atlantis… we're looking at a day or two tops unless I can get their own system working for us." Screwing her face, Sam frowned. "I don't get it… most corporations that deal with paperwork don't need nearly this amount of data storage. They must have been working on something else as well." Seeing that Jack had lost the train of thought, Sam's features dulled a bit, and Jack could tell it was simply a defensive mechanism. "What about the Goa'uld, sir? And Peters?"

Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of Tropicana bottles. Sam did a slight double take at how he could hide so much in so little a space. "Teal'c and Daniel are dealing with Peters, Goa'uld's in lockup. Figure they had the most experience."

Sam nodded as she popped the top of the bottle. "And Cam and Vala?"

Jack suppressed his grin. It had taken a bit to get over the shock, but now it was just downright funny. "Colonel Smiley Shorts and Vala are questioning the regular employees. Keep it all SGC you know?"

"Yes, sir…" Sam couldn't hide the smirk and breathed deeply to control herself. She could see Jack found it funny too but suddenly felt the need to defend her team. "He's really not so bad, sir. Cam might get into… _awkward_ situations, but he always finds a way out that helps us in the end."

Jack shrugged. "Reminds me of Jonas."

Sam screwed her face at the thought. "Maybe at first. But he's good. I'm glad he's part of the team."

Still not entirely convinced, but having trust in Sam's opinion, Jack let the issue drop. "Still.. Smiley boxers?"

The two old teammates laughed as the finished their snacks.

* * *

"I have the right to a lawyer. You're just making this easier for me by denying my rights."

Daniel put his hands together and laced his fingers like thread. "Well that only applies if you actually _have_ rights. From what I've learned of the legal system involving alien offenders; rights? Not so much." Daniel was walking a fine line. He was still "legal" by not actually _denying _him since Peters had just launched into a speech about rights and his ability to get a lawyer.

The line would easily be broken once the man actually _asked_ for a lawyer. But so far, he hadn't. "If this is some kind of National Security bullshit, I had nothing to do with any of the stuff going on in the basement. If they were hiring illegals, that's not my problem."

Daniel could tell from his tone that it was a studying so many languages, it was a simple matter to know the intonation and speech patterns in a language as simple as English. It all came very natural to Daniel. "Well these illegals are a little more illegal I'd think. Maybe you'd like to talk to my friend Murray?"

At the call of his pseudonym, Teal'c entered the room in his "Murray" getup. Daniel stood, gave him a gentle nod, and left the small room that had originally been built to interview applicants to RedScope.

Peters scoffed softly at Teal'c's appearance. "Who're you supposed to be? Columbo?" Teal'c made no reply, and only stared at Peters from across the desk. "Yeah well this is an illegal detainment! I should sue you all for assault and battery." He rubbed his neck exaggeratedly where Jack had struck him. "How'd you like that huh? My lawyers could sue you for everything you've got! Even that goofy hat."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, and every so slowly moved to take his hat off. Peter's instantly stiffened upon seeing the Jaffa Tattoo emblazoned on Teal'c forehead.

There was no mistaking that reaction. It wasn't one of curiosity over the unknown. It was recognition. Peters tried to mask it with a question. "That uhh… that's an interesting tattoo…" Again Teal'c did not reply, in fact, he had only blinked once since entering the room. "Not a talker huh? Well this is a wacky way to interrogate someone. What're you going to do? Stare me to death?"

Teal'c narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Just enough for Peters to notice. The former corporal shifted in his seat and loosened his shirt at the neck.

Outside, Daniel was standing watching through a camera the Marine Team had set up to tape the interview. An ex Air-Force Sergeant now working for the NID stood beside him. "So Bates, I heard you came from Atlantis."

The man nodded and sighed. "Yeah… was a tough year. Heard you wanted to come with us."

Daniel groaned softly and watched on screen as the temperature slowly began to rise. Teal'c had requested that the air reclamation in the office as well as the temperature be disabled and raised respectively. Neither was against the rules of engagement, yet with a silent and intimidating Teal'c, the senses would heighten to the point where even Teal'c's smallest movements would seem amplified.

Daniel had to admit, it was the most logical and humane interrogation he'd ever seen. "Yeah… every time I try and go there something comes up." Daniel found himself thinking of Vala and their… _eventful_… first meeting. "What've you done with the Goa'uld? I'm sure Jack wanted to question him."

Bates shrugged, and shifted uncomfortably as he favored a leg. "Actually, General O'Neill insisted on tossing the Goa'uld into the darkest most secure cell I could find until we had questioned everyone else. I had Odyssey beam him to Area 51 until further orders."

Making a curious sound, Daniel mused. "Oh Odyssey's in orbit?"

Turning around, Bates began to walk away with a very minor limp. "Yeah, she's taking on new personnel and some 302 upgrades. Who needs a private jet when the Asgard Beaming is so much faster?"

Both men chuckled at the thought and Daniel watched as Bates walked away.

* * *

"Next!"

Cam was _not_ enjoying this. He'd joined the Air Force to fly, kick ass, and chew bubble gum. He'd gotten one of those out of the way today but sitting here reading off a questionnaire to see if any of these people were involved was about as appealing as a full physical by Carolyn.

On the other hand…

Taking in the view around him, Cam noticed that this little office was surprisingly well maintained. It was almost like the office of the Gym he'd signed up to back in Colorado that he rarely ever visited… Waste of money now he realized. He had gotten a nice gym bag and a date with the interviewer though…

The receptionist from the front desk who had attacked Cam earlier sheepishly walked into the room. It looked like she'd been crying a little and was obviously upset. Vala next to Cam turned and smacked him in the arm. "Cameron! What did you do to her!?"

The receptionist made a noise in her throat was either a sob, or an attempt to hide her embarrassment. Cam simply groaned and palmed his forehead. "Name?"

The receptionist sat and kept her voice as calm as she could. "Vivian…"

Cam waited for a second and then winced realizing he'd have to ask even more. "_Full_ name?"

Pursing her lips, the receptionist nodded. "Bradshaw… Vivian Bradshaw."

Vala could see that _something_ strange had happened, and decided to simply get this over with as the possibility of hilarity could only come at Cam's expense. "Oh come on now. He doesn't bite…" She narrowed her eyes at Cameron. "At least as far as I know."

There was some mystical force behind the galaxy, and Cameron was convinced it was out to get him. "_What… _exactly do you _do_ for RedScope miss Bradshaw?"

"Missus." Vivian said meekly. "I'm married. It's Missus." Seeing that she'd inadvertently dug herself into an even deeper hole of embarrassment, she simply continued her reply. "I work as the lobby receptionist here… I also handle Mr. Ridge's day to day planner so I can book appointments accordingly."

Seeing that she was actually a rather important person, Vala jumped on it. "Oh so you know where he is right now?"

Vivian shook her head. "No… he decided to take a vacation about 3 weeks ago. He's not only the CEO, he's also the owner so it's nothing strange. He does this every so often."

Pushing the thoughts of suicide to escape this ludicrocity aside, He continued the interview. "So you have no idea where he went?"

Vivian shook her head. "No… sorry… I wish I could help because I really do love my country…" Cam could almost hear 'Stars and Stripes Forever' begin to play in the background. "…and if my employers have done anything against the US then I can't tell you how upset I am…" She rubbed her hands together and shivered a little. "I can tell you that he keeps notes on all his dealings on his personal computer… the password is "Naquadah"… whatever that is."

Both Cam and Vala raised their eyebrows. The sheepish and very frightened young woman was being serious. Vala muttered as she screwed her face. "Uhh… how do you know?"

She shrugged around a bit and looked a little more embarrassed if that were possible. "Well I… Mr. Ridge is a… _hands on…_ employer."

Cam nearly groaned out loud at the thought. "Aw, are you telling me he…?"

Vivian held her hands up and shook her head. "No no no! Nothing like…" She looked at Cam apologetically. "…_that. _But umm… he wasn't afraid to be… _friendly."_ She sighed softly as if wishing none of this was happening. "He was a great guy, Always willing to listen, and when I was hired he gave me more than I asked for in pay."

All useful information, Cam noticed that it matched what General O'Neill had said Albert Grant had mentioned. "Hmmm…" he turned to Vala and decided to put Vivian's information to the test. "Alright… you can go now. Thanks for cooperating and tell the guard outside Cameron Mitchell says you can go home… just don't leave the city."

Vivian smiled softly, feeling very reassured. "oh thank you… '_Cameron.'" _

Vala noticed the way she said it, and bit her lip to keep from laughing. Cam had already been through enough today, and she had plenty of ammo for later.

It was made even worse when Vivian fished into her pocket and set something on the table. "Umm… I think this is yours."

Cam's cheeks turned a deep puce, and he simply remained quiet as Vivian walked away leaving his belt buckle on the table.

Vala furrowed her brow looking at it. "Cam… isn't that your…?"

Keeping his voice calm, Cam quietly palmed the buckle. "_Just_ don't tell Sam."

From outside, the Marine Specialist who'd just motioned where Vivian Bradshaw could go to get cleared to leave could swear he heard girlish giggling inside.

* * *

Jack watched alongside Daniel as Peters began to squirm in his chair. Teal'c hadn't said a single word since entering almost forty-five minutes ago, but nether did he sweat in the heat of the office. Jack could tell Peters was very nervous to be sitting in the room with a silent and hardly expressive Jaffa.

Several times Jack had been shocked by how much Teal'c could say with simply a raise of an eyebrow, or even a tightening of the skin around his lips. He'd known him for almost ten years now and even Jack who was several rooms down the hall, through two solid locked doors and watching the proceedings through a camera felt a little nervous. Jack could only imagine how Peters felt.

Cam walked up and stood at attention. "General."

Jack turned his head to Cam and nodded. "At ease, Mitchell. I'm not big on ceremony."

Loosening up, Cam looked at the video feed. "He really _is_ intimidating isn't he, sir?"

Daniel shrugged. "You didn't know him when he was fresh through the gate."

Smirking, Cam mused. "Sam's told me some stories. Something about _'An Oprah.'?_"

An odd emotion washed over Jack. Part of him took exception to the new "leader" of SG1. The man who'd "replaced" him. Cameron was a good soldier, if a little friendlier than most soldiers Jack knew. He felt resentful that Cameron had a good friendship with Carter… calling her by her given name because they were both the same rank. Something Jack knew would never happen to him unless...

Jack had let the matter slide for a long time. Too long he mused, and despite liking this Lieutenant Colonel who had become as much a part of SG1 as he'd been, just the mere fact that in less than two years he'd been able to form the friendship he'd always wished was appropriate for him with the brainy blond, Jack couldn't help but feel just the edge of resentment.

He'd once felt the same about Daniel, but just as quickly as it came, it left since Daniel was _different_… Daniel was family.

Rolling his eyes, Jack said. "That was a _looong _time ago. You know a different Teal'c than I do."

Cam cracked his knuckles as he saw Peters slowly beginning to unravel. "I guess that's true… No one I'd rather have watching my back though."

Turning to Cam, Jack narrowed his eyes. "Ditto."

* * *

"I'm telling you… I don't _know_ anything! I… I just work here!"

Teal'c remained silent. All he did was move his face just a tad to show his incredulity.

"I-I-I… I don't know! I'm telling you! I don't know!"

Finally, Teal'c made a motion that moved him more than a few millimeters, He put his fingers to his ear as if listening to something on the radio. A few seconds passed, and Teal'c eyes narrowed.

He kept his voice strong and low pitched. By this point Peters was sure that Teal'c was a demon himself. "You will tell me everything you know about the attempt on Samantha Carter's life. You will tell me how you recognized that I am a Jaffa, and if you do not answer all my and my associates questions, I will be… _displeased."_

Sweating, and feeling a little dehydrated, Peters found that Teal'c implied threat meant something along the lines of a castration through a colonoscopy. ".. I..I… Gah! Yes yes! Yes I recognize her! Her picture's in our files and as far as I know she was just supposed to be someone we find! Please! I swear I didn't know!" He took a breath trying to calm down, but only succeeded in hyperventilating. "I got a file… it had a few mentions.. I signed a non-disclosure agreement! All I knew is that its not on this planet! I never thought they'd fight our people please!"

Teal'c again listened in to his radio, and then gave a devious smile. "You will tell everything you know to my associate. Should you do so, I will… _appreciate _your assistance."

Peters nodded, and rubbed his face with his palms. "Yes yes… just… just please don't let them get me… I need protection! They'll know I talked!"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, then put his hat on and adjusted it. "Should you lie to us… that will be _your_ problem."

Peters groaned softly and leaned his head down onto the desk. "No! No no no… I swear… just… just please…"

Walking out of the office, Teal'c grumbled softly in frustration, the epitome of an emotional outburst for the Jaffa, and removed his trench coat. It was hard to remain quiet and still for so long when he had an itch, but he found that silently meditating and focusing on intimidation kept him from buckling.

Scratching the itch under his arm, Teal'c saw Jack, Cameron and Daniel as they walked towards him. Cam was the first to speak. "Great job Teal'c."

Jack turned slightly to Cameron and decided not to say anything. He already knew the man deferred to him and was just being friendly with his… _their_ team. "Carter's busy downstairs with their computer, once Peters is finished talking we'll go see what that Snake'll have to say."

Daniel groaned softly as he leaned on a cubical wall. "We should contact the Tok'ra, they can extract the symbiote safely and we might even find out who they work for."

Jack nodded and clenched his fist hard enough to crack the knuckles. "Guess this cuts our suspect list down."

To his annoyance, Daniel shook his head. "I'm not so sure about that. The Lucian Alliance might not have many, but they do have former Goa'uld who've tried to take power that way. I still think it's the Lucian Alliance since they've hired bounty hunters to come after us before. It fits their profile."

Figuring that Daniel had been watching too much TV with Vala and Teal'c, Jack gave him a shit eating grin. "Profile, you say? Let's wait till we get the facts straight."

Shaking his head as he walked away, Jack promised himself that before this was over, he'd have caught the people behind this and kicked their asses across the galaxy for being such a furious pain in the neck.

There was still a Goa'uld to interrogate though, and Jack felt an odd bit of pleasure knowing he'd be the one to do the questioning. No interrogators, no veiled threats, and no holds barred. Jack was going to get answers or he was going to skewer that snake personally.

* * *

**A/N:** _The Aftermath of RedScope is chaos, What will Peters confess? What will Sam find in her check of the servers? And how far will Jack go to get the answers he's after?_

_Find out in the next installment of…_

**Occupational Hazard.**

Reviews are like hugs, better when shared ^_^


	9. Anger and Shock

**A/N:** _Many thanks to the indomitable **Sealurk** for his beta on this chapter. Currently working on the last bit of the story (about 4 more chapters) and as soon as he betas and I correct, I post (we've both got some RL issues so don't be worried if it takes a bit)_

_

* * *

_

It had been a long time since Jack had personally handled an interrogation. Dark memories stirred in the back of his mind, threatening to break through and invade the pleasant solidarity of his life.

That dark part of his life was over. No one was ever the same after taking part in a Special Operations mission. It was a different kind of war; Jack had lost people close to him, people he'd come to think of as family. He'd also lost a certain part of himself, a part that threatened to resurface in times like the present situation and ruin what he'd built for himself.

He questioned sometimes whether it was worth it, all the hardships he'd suffered before joining the SGC. But seeing everything that had happened since going through the Stargate was that one key factor, the one thing that kept Jack asleep at night and the nightmares at bay.

Sitting in the cell in front of him through one-way glass was one of those nightmares. Jack had buried what had happened and now it was agony to repress the adrenaline boiling the lining of his arteries. "Has he said anything?"

Major Davis, currently handling Area 51 security while the normal Colonel in charge was on paternity leave shook his head. "Just a word. 'Hadad.' I'm guessing it's his name, sir."

To Jack's side, the only person he could really trust to assist him with this interrogation and keep him grounded in the reality of the situation mused. " 'Hadad'? Hadad was an old pagan god… not a big or even special god as far as I can remember… I'd have to read up on it."

Jack turned to Daniel and nodded. "Everything Daniel. Who he was, what he did, allies, enemies... _everything_."

Daniel nodded, but before he moved off in the dark hallways of the 'secret' research base, he leaned in towards Jack and whispered. "Jack… are you sure about this? There must be someone else who can…"

"No." It didn't get much simpler than that. A Goa'uld on Earth was entirely Jack's purview as head of Homeworld Security. The president had given him plenty of leeway in how to handle matters like this and it was finally time to flex those authoritive muscles. "Hurry up Daniel. I'm gonna need you."

Major Davis actively tried to avoid looking at the two old teammates. He'd heard stories of the hardships they've endured, but nothing said that better then the way with only a look and less than a dozen words, the camaraderie between them shone through.

* * *

"He _what?!_"

Cam shrugged, to him it was no big deal… well… at least not enough to complain to a Major General. "He took Daniel and went to Area 51. Told me to take Peters' confession and see how you're doing."

Sam fought to keep from grumbling out loud, She'd been caught out of the loop and it was annoying. "_I'm_ doing fine. Thankfully the boys at Langley finally got clearance and they're piecing this place back together, we'll be able to access RedScope's remaining data within a few hours." She turned to look into the glass rooms of the server area and watched as several technicians worked diligently to rewire and network the entire system again. The storage server she'd set up was still humming beautifully, the ten 500 gigabyte SATA hard drives slowly recollecting and reorganizing themselves. "What'd Peters have to say?"

Cam pulled out a chair from the table and quirked his face as he examined the plate with a touch of chocolate frosting on it. "Uhh… he wasn't directly involved. He recognized you and wanted to split you and the General up so he could figure out what to do. He doesn't know you were the one who uhh… "Cam used two fingers in a motion across his shoulder to indicate where Sam had been shot. "Didn't even know it was gonna go down like that."

Across from Sam sat Vala typing on her tablet PC. What was anyone's guess. "That rascal. I knew I didn't like the way he looked."

Teal'c grumbled softly as he stood guard above Sam. "Indeed he did appear to be quite unsettled. One would question his dietary fiber intake."

It took a few seconds for Sam to understand what Teal'c had just said, but with her mental dictionary suddenly suffering a blue screen of death, she turned to Teal'c with an awed expression. "You mean he seemed up-tight?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "I believe that is what I stated."

The group chuckled at the Jaffa's peculiar sense of humor, and Cam motioned to him. "Come on Teal'c. I got the urge for some Denny's and I'm sure the ladies won't mind some girl time."

Vala blew a raspberry at Cam as he walked away and Sam rolled her eyes. Teal'c turned to them both and bowed slightly with his hands at his back. "Samantha Carter, Vala Mal Doran…" With that, the Jaffa turned and followed Cam out towards the elevator.

Sam watched and noticed how Cam patted Teal'c on the shoulder and was his typical buddy buddy self. She was momentarily lost in thought about the southern Lieutenant Colonel.

It had been easy to say no to rejoining SG1 last year. Sam had been somewhat happy at Area 51, and who knew, the job might lead somewhere that she'd be happy without snipers trying to pick her head off.

But then again she looked at how Teal'c stood there stoically, not simply putting up with Cam, but enjoying the feeling of friendship. Sam didn't know how she'd be able to cope without people she could trust nearby, and these people were her family.

"Hey, Samantha?"

Her train of thought interrupted, Sam turned to Vala. "Hm?"

The Tablet PC had its screen turned around and Vala pointed to a picture of a giant spaghetti monster having a fight with a velociraptor wearing robes. "Is this really what some of your people believe?"

Ludicrous was not a strong enough word for the emotion in Sam's head.

* * *

"From what I've been able to research so quickly, _Hadad_ was a minor god back in the times of the pagan gods. Extrapolating from that, I've been able to link him to several supposed system lords, but primarily to Ba'al."

The skin around Jack's eyes tightened, his fist clenched just a little harder than before. "Botchi?"

Daniel didn't laugh and instead continued as Jack watched intently through the window. "The one and only…" Daniel realized the error of what he'd just said and rubbed his face. "Well not really. But I don't think any of the Ba'als are behind this. He lost a lot of favor with the other Goa'uld when he took over Anubis's fleet and ever since we defeated the replicators, he's kept a low profile and to himself."

Jack seemed to form an idea in his head. "But he's got connections on Earth. He _could_ have done this."

Shrugging, Daniel looked at the man inside the cell as well. "Well… it's possible. I still think it's the Lucian Alliance. Especially after what we've done to their Kassa operations they've been looking for ways to get back at us."

It was maddening, and Jack still had to ask a question to the snake son of a bitch inside that cell. "Let's take a look at what they found on him, I want to know everything before we go in there."

Taking a step back to allow Jack past him, Daniel said. "We?"

"Yes, we. As in you and I, Jack and Daniel, O'Neill and Jackson. _Scruffy and Spacemonkey!_" Jack normally didn't give so many different synonyms for what he was saying, but at moments like these when he was three fries short of a happy meal, his perspicacity increased exponentially.

Daniel remained silent for a moment, then deadpanned. "Spacemonkey and Scruffy sound better."

Jack shuddered much like a clown's evil former sidekick on his favorite show, then moved on. Daniel watched carefully though as Jack was definitely acting strangely.

It took only a few moments for them to arrive at the quartermaster who had taken all the items that were found on the Goa'uld including his clothing. The Master Chief Petty Officer in charge of the storage quickly handed Jack the box with the confiscated items, and Jack unceremoniously dumped them out onto a table.

Hack took a look at the random junk, mostly pens, a small notepad, a wallet with an ID.

The man was civilian, his ID showed that he was married and lived in DC. A quick background check would make sure it was all on the up and up.

Jack had to be careful, his ire was directly solely at the snake in the man's head, not the man himself. But it was always difficult to separate the two of them when…

"Jack."

Daniel's voice had taken a completely different tone to it, something Jack had rarely ever heard. He turned to Daniel with his eyebrows furrowed. "What is it Da…?" The object in Daniel's hand made Jack's blood freeze for a moment, then boil with searing hot rage.

* * *

"So your computer filing system actually degrades the more you use it? No wonder my IRC chats are getting so laggy."

Sam rolled her eyes at Vala's quick assimilation of earth geek culture. "Actually that's probably spyware. What websites do you go to anyway?" Suddenly realizing that she'd probably not like the answer Vala's devious smile was about to give, Sam interrupted herself. "Actually wait, it doesn't matter. I'll take a look in a few minutes, I've just gotten one of the drives finished and I'm about to take a look at their files."

Vala grumbled softly and flipped the tablet back around into it's proper position. "Oh alright, it's not like the WormWorld forum's going anywhere…. It keeps glitching and my account got deleted accidentally the other day!"

Sam rolled her eyes and groaned. "I hate that show you know? Well less hate and more resent. Cassie loves it and I always feel like I'm watching a parody of my own life. Martin Lloyd basically took every mission report we gave him and added Smallville's enemy of the week, teenage thirty year olds and Captain Kirk."

Getting a wide grin, Vala sat next to Sam with her chin on Sam's shoulder. "Ohhhh I love that show! Daniel bought me the DVDs and I _love_ Tom Welling!"

Sam shuddered softly in mock terror as she opened up the recovery program on her tablet. "I… can't comment. I've never watched it much." Glorious lies, sweet blissful lies. Cassandra would never stop laughing if she Found out. "Anyways I hate the way they show…." She made air quotes and highly exaggerated her voice. "_…my…_ character. No Air Force officer would _ever_ act like that."

Vala shrugged around and pointed to the screen as she replied. "I dunno, you've done some strange stuff before… " Actually poking the screen, Vala accidentally opened the file using the touchscreen interface, Vala shirked back. "…Whoops! Sorry, Just curious what _'Off'shore holdings' _was."

Instead of getting angry, Sam simply looked at the information on screen. There was a lot of financial data along with specific dates, and even lists of equipment. Every few lines something was gibberish from the attempts to delete it, but it was still relatively legible. "S'ok…"

Vala screwed her face as Sam silently read it. She tried to make heads or tails of the figures but the only thing she understood was the monetary amounts. "Wow… that's a lot of money. I could get Daniel an entire wing of dusty old artifacts for that!" Vala then grumbled softly. "Not like he'd even realize it was from me."

Sam winced, but snickered at the odd care Vala showed for Daniel. "I'm sure he'd appreciate it from you. But you're right. This is _a lot_ of money. There's a lot of computer equipment as well.. the kind of thing you'd need to set up a base but.." That's when it hit Sam, and she understood how Earth munitions could have made it off the planet. "They have a base offworld… it's the only explanation."

Vala groaned softly and rubbed Sam's good shoulder in sympathy. "Guess we're not done fighting these guys."

* * *

"I'm not sure you should be doing this Jack…"

Jack turned to Daniel and felt the tension in his jaw as he spoke. "I promise, I won't kill him. The Tok'ra are comin' and that snake's gonna die anyway."

Daniel shrugged and took a step ahead of Jack to get his attention. "Well that's my point. He probably knows we're going to hand him over to the Tok'ra and won't be likely to want to share what he knows.."

"I know that." Jack did, and this interrogation was only going to be one thing and one thing alone.

Jack opened the door, nodding slightly to the Marine SFs guarding the cell. Daniel followed and noted one of the guards enter with them, his Zat at the ready.

The Goa'uld host was a skinny man, one who looked like he'd spent more time maintaining his fingernails than exercising. He looked up at Jack and the slight hint of a smile pushed up his left cheek.

Jack remained quite silent as he stood in front of the table, his dark blue dress uniform clearly denoted respect and rank, but the Goa'uld simply smiled deviously at him.

Taking his time, Jack pulled out the chair opposite the Goa'uld and sat down. Every instinct in his body was telling him to simply get it over with, to relish the one moment of revenge he could have on a species that had done him such harm. He controlled his breathing and simply clenched his fists.

In the still quiet of the room, Jack's knuckles cracking from curling his fists got Daniel's attention. Outwardly Jack looked calm, composed, maybe even a little amused. But the vein pulsating on the back of Jack's hand, and the way his skin was pulled tight around the features of his face denoted repressed rage.

Daniel made sure Jack could see him standing there, waiting to back him up in any of their questioning.

Jack waited a full minute, staring back at the Goa'uld. A lifetime could have been over in that minute before Jack finally moved.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the object that had enraged him so that Daniel had found in the Goa'uld's possession. He laid it down on the table and watched for a reaction.

The Goa'uld smiled and made a somewhat amused sound. It took a few seconds, but finally he spoke. _"A last meal before death?"_

Jack let the right side of his mouth quirk up, only a little bit longer. "Never knew Snakes had sweet teeth."

The wrapped Snickers bar remained on the table, the Goa'uld not even bothering to look at it. "_Food of the gods."_

Daniel snorted softly with a hint of derision. "I'm sure Cadbury would love to expand their clientele."

The Goa'uld chuckled and sneered at Daniel. "_Mars… Snickers is owned by Mars. You amuse me with your lack of intelligence on your own world."_

Deciding that time was precious, Jack got right to the heart of the questioning. "Tell me, If I got your blood on my shirt, and I compared it to the one we found on M8S-3J5, would it match genetically?" Jack knew the Goa'uld wouldn't respond directly to a threat, but that's not what he was after.

Chuckling again, the Goa'uld cocked its head as he looked to Jack. "_You mean, was I the one to bring your friend to an inch of her life?"_ The Goa'uld laughed even more, remaining perfectly calm despite his bad position. "_I saw the Colonel is doing quite alright. Tell me, did she scream? Did those luscious lips beg your doctors to save her life? I can see her writhing in agony in my mind's eye, Almost erotic. Very different from the Colonel I've come to know."_

The memories in Jack's head were fighting a titanic struggle for domination, Nine years ago and holding Skaara in his arms after shooting him. Seeing that the host victim still remained alive inside, trapped in their own body, terrorized.

But an even fresher memory, the evil of the Goa'uld, the levels of debasing and debauchery they would stoop to to get what they wanted. Jack had buried that memory just like every other one but this situation was threatening to unravel him.

The fact that this all came back to her, that she was the one who'd been targeted was just the straw that threatened to break his camel's back.

His mind had decided to fight a battle in his inner being, one side fighting to reach his adrenal gland to give him the strength to wring the life out of this Goa'uld, the other to reach his soul and reinforce the control he'd built in his life..

In the end, what decided the battle was the way Daniel was looking at him, his eyes darting up to meet his face, then quickly dropping as if worried. Daniel was feeling the same… Jack _knew it, _but Daniel had a sense of morality, a sense of ethics that he based his life on, and that's' what the look told him. Jack had seen that expression on Daniel before, and he knew the words that would follow if he allowed one side to win over the other.

Knowing he couldn't stand it in this room another minute, Jack pushed himself out of the chair and turned to the Marine at the door. "If he reaches for that Snickers, shoot him."

With that, Jack took confident steps out of the cell with Daniel on his heels. For his credit, Daniel waited until the sound proof door had shut before launching into his questions. "What was that?! _Shoot him!?"_

Jack turned to Daniel and gave him a '_come on'_ look. "With a _Zat._ He'll be fine for the Tok'ra."

"And that's it? Just the Snickers? Aren't we going to ask him about RedScope? That Ridge guy? What kind of interrogation was that?"

Flexing his fists again, Jack calmly stated. "It's a _Goa'uld_ Daniel… They don't _break_ under questioning. They just keep sitting there smiling while you get angrier and angrier and…." Jack's eyes narrowed. "… and you stop asking questions." To Daniel's surprise. Jack reached out and put a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "Things would have been a lot different if you weren't here Daniel."

Daniel was shocked by the calm words spoken by his old friend. He blinked a few times before replying. "How?"

Jack fought the urge to pull Daniel into a manly hug. He'd only done it a few times before, and this wasn't one of those dire times. "It just is. Thank you." It had been a long time coming, but Jack was glad to finally get the words out even if they were double and even triple edged.

Leaving a flabbergasted Daniel, Jack turned and began the long walk to head to a communications terminal to hail Odyssey. Daniel scurried to keep up and called out. "_Wait!_ Do you think he's the one who shot Sam?"

Jack replied as he walked forward. "No, but he was there." That was the only thing Jack thought he could get out of the Goa'uld without sacrificing another part of his soul.

Daniel turned back to the cell, then to Jack in confusion. "And you got that from a chocolate bar?"

Not able to resist, Jack rolled his eyes. "Think Daniel. Those snakes have complete control. He wouldn't have missed."

Now Daniel understood, but even so he still wanted it clarified. "Oh… well that makes sense. But we didn't even try and find out where he came from. And just because he's a goa'uld doesn't mean he could have made a perfect shot."

Feeling rather generous now with the archeologist, Jack continued to explain the epiphany he'd just had. "500 feet is fish in a barrel with an M24. Whoever was shooting was going for a headshot and missed because they don't know guns. Only explanation." The rage threatened to seep through again, but Jack remained calm, Vengeance was not the same as justice.

Daniel still didn't understand fully, and he had more questions. "And what about Reynolds and Walker? They both took chest shots."

Jack shrugged. "They were moving. Instinct is to aim for headshots if the target's not moving, body if they are."

Unable to argue such simple logic, Daniel gulped. "She's lucky to be alive… if that Goa'uld had taken the shot."

Jack turned, and the reason for his rage became clear. "We need to stop these guys… and _now._ They won't miss again."

* * *

Putting the phone down, General Landry sighed and rubbed his forehead. Not only had Jack caused yet _another_ massive incident, but he and Woolsey had just decided to commandeer the conference room for tomorrow at noon. They'd also requisitioned Odyssey as well as SG1, SG3, and about a dozen other SGC soldiers and technicians.

Landry had been happy to agree to it, but when he heard the plan, he'd begun to wonder just what level of karmic rebalancing he'd have to do in order to avoid a situation like this again.

He cocked his head towards the open door. "Siler! Get in here!"

A moment passed, and the scruffy looking sergeant entered the room. He wore several bandages along the exposed part of his right arm and one across his cheek. "Sir!" He saluted briskly, looking quite calm despite the obvious injuries.

Landry raised an eyebrow. "At ease, Siler." A note Jack had left Landry about the sergeant when he left now became clear. The sergeant relaxed, and Landry continued "I need you to round up the list of people and equipment in the next 72 hours. I don't care what else you're doing, this is more important."

Accepting the sheet of paper General Landry handed him, Siler nodded as he looked it over. "On it sir."

The Sergeant shot off another salute, and walked out the door. Landry imagined for a moment in his head the sound of glass shattering but knew it was just a figment of his imagination. Jack and Woolsey had a big thing planned, and he hoped to god it worked.

* * *

"Vala… _what_ are you doing?"

Vala smiled brightly and typed furiously on the computer. "Spy satellites."

Sam raised an eyebrow in incredulity. "_Spy _satellites?"

Nodding, Vala finally hit enter and spun the tablet around so Sam could see. "Google. They have this _amazing_ program where they actually spy on the whole world using their system of satellites! The Goa'uld would _love_ to do this sort of thing."

Groaning softly, Sam palmed her forehead. She'd already compiled all the useful data she could recover from this hard drive and was busy compressing it all to send to the SGC. "Vala, Google isn't spying on anyone. They take those satellite pictures in order to provide accurate maps. I even heard they're going to have vans driving around taking pictures of the streets so when you ask for directions, it'll show you exactly what to look for."

Again Vala nodded and zoomed in on the District of Colombia. "Exactly! I love checking out Google Earth and seeing what fascinating things people have found."

That, Sam could agree on. "Okay okay, yes sometimes people will find interesting stuff yes… but its not like they're taking pictures all day long. The chances of anything interesting happening here when they took the picture is like… astronomical in the sense of walking to Atlantis from here."

Vala grumbled softly and picked up a business card from the desk to get the address of the building. She spent a few seconds waiting for the program to load fully, and her smile grew into evil proportions. "Oh really? What'll you wager?"

Sam screwed her face in suspicion and looked at Vala intently. "Vala, the odds are like a quintillion to one. It's more likely a billion monkeys on a billion typewriters would type out the entire script of Futurama word for word."

Insisting, Vala said. "No no no… come on. I'll bet you my entire shoe collection that we'll find something."

Groaning softly, Sam sighed. "I can't take your shoes, Vala. You'd kill me in a week."

Rolling her eyes (_namely because she knew it was true)_ Vala again persisted. "Oh come on! Fine, how about if I win, we all go to Disneyland when this is over, and if you win, we'll go to anywhere you want to go, no matter how scientific."

_That_ got Sam's attention. Vala highly disliked going to science museums or anywhere that things were less than in your face entertaining. She smiled softly and 'hmm'ed. "Well… I wouldn't mind some company back to Atlantis. Once we get the gate bridge operational, I'd love to get a look at some of those Ancient devices. Might even go over a Jumper."

Vala's eyes went wide. "Ohh! If I win we do that too! I loved it when we went last time! That Sheppard was too much fun."

Sam snorted as she thought about it. John Sheppard certainly was a _different_ kind of soldier, but then again she had a fond place for people like that. "Alright, but let me warn them first."

Grinning widely, Vala held out her hand with her pinky outstretched. "Deal?"

Preferring to ignore where Vala had learned the gesture and instead just accepting it, Sam hooked her pinky around Vala's. "Deal. Now when do you want to go?"

Vala spun the tablet PC around and showed Sam the picture of RedScope Industries taken from orbit, a large closed off garden decorated the rear area of the building. The picture had been taken during the day and since it was in the heart of an American city, the resolution was incredibly fine. "I was thinking of bringing Sheppard back to take him to Disneyland… look here."

Sam's eyes grew to comic proportions. Her jaw dropped ever so slightly. The picture was unmistakable, at least to anyone who'd served in the SGC.

There in the middle of the garden RedScope Industries used as a private sanctuary for it's CEO and executive officers, in the middle of dozens of trees and plant of exotic nature, was a Goa'uld Cargo ship along with dozens of crates surrounding it.

* * *

**A/N: **_WHUHAHAHAHA! EVIL! The mystery finally begins to fall apart, and the answers begin to come to light. What will SG1 do with a few of the answers now? Why do Jack and Woolsey want the briefing room and Odyssey? Will Siler finish the list without getting hurt?_

_Find out this and more, in the next installment of…_

**Occupational Hazard.**


	10. Revelations and Decisions

_**A/N:**_ _Pardons for the long delay in getting this out, but both I and the ever destructive __**Sealurk**__ have had quite busy RL's :p With the holidays as well, there's little time for writing and betaing._

_That being said, this should be a nice set-up chapter :D Hope y'all enjoy! _

* * *

It had been almost a week since the fiasco at RedScope, Cam had been going stir crazy and time in the gym with Teal'c and every so often Daniel was the only thing keeping him sane.

Cam hadn't really expected anything to come of his Alien-esque escapade in RedScope, but apparently he'd thought wrong. "Sir, reporting as ordered."

The office was technically Landry's but Jack had agreed to share it during the immediate crisis. Jack looked up at Mitchell and wondered exactly how he was going to say what he needed to say. "Sit down, Mitchell."

Not hearing those precious words '_at ease' _Cam knew this wasn't going to be a good day. "Sir."

Jack watched as Cameron carefully sat down and remained straight in his posture. How did this man end up on _his _SG1? Jack had offered it to him _knowing _that Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c were all moving on, the gift was an open ended one for Cam to build his _own_ team, his _own_ family.

Instead, Jack had to sit every day in his office in DC knowing that this man, who seemingly couldn't keep his pants on despite trying, was taking care of _his_ family. "Just wanted to tell you something before the briefing."

Cam did his best not to show any worry. He'd been in trouble before, he'd get through this. "Yes, Sir."

Jack sighed and put his hands together, the sound dampened room was perfect for what he was about to say. "SG1 is different. Most other teams are straight forward, I may not like what happened at RedScope, but I'm not surprised."

Cam raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Sir?"

Jack held up a hand. "Let me finish. Personally, I would ask you to explain how you could turn a simple infiltration mission into a journey through the vents… but then I remember that this is SG1, and we're not normal." Jack sighed and smirked softly. "You know, for a few minutes I _did_ question why you're here, but apart from all the glowing mission reports, the alliances you've helped us found, and even that '_Sodan'_ debacle you fixed… The team wants you." It was strange for Jack to say something like this. He could tell Daniel and Teal'c had no issues with Cam and actually liked him, that would be expected from the two of them as they were rather agreeable.

What sold Cam was Sam's simple offhanded defense when Jack had made a joke. "I see, sir."

Jack shifted in his seat, and let the information settle before speaking again. "That's all. The briefing starts in thirty minutes, dismissed."

Cam got up, saluted, and scurried out of the room unsure of what the hell just happened.

* * *

Sam sat next to the front of the table where she'd had Walter set up a computer hooked to the screen behind her. Through the unobstructed window of the side, she could see the Stargate softly hissing from a recent activation. Off-world recon teams were stopped, but there were still issues with resupplying offworld bases and research centers.

With Daedalus in Pegasus, and only Odyssey here in Milky Way until Apollo was finished this year, resupply was primarily through the gate system. Sam wondered idly how certain bases were doing that were in hard to reach areas.

The information she'd gleaned from the pieces left over at RedScope were alarming though. And during this briefing it was all going to come out into the open. at least what they knew.

To the other side of the room, Jack and Woolsey were busy having a private chat. A part of her wanted to know what it was about, but at the same time, she knew that it was likely command level decision making that soon enough she'd be able to listen in as a command level officer herself… she hoped..

The rest of her team walked up from the spiral stairwell, Daniel and Vala quickly took their positions nearest the door while Teal'c and Cam moved a bit closer to the front. Behind them, Colonel Reynolds and his own team entered as well having recuperated from their injuries in the past week and a half.. Even SG-14 was here. Sam knew a little about what was going to happen but this was now a packed room as everyone below the rank of Major was standing.

Jack and Woolsey moved over to the front of the table and took their seats. Sam scooted over and saw Jack give her a small look, something he often did during these briefings to tell her that things were not going well.

Woolsey put his hands together and nodded as he opened the proceedings. "Good morning. I trust you're all very curious as to why we called this meeting." General sounds of agreement came through the room. Woolsey almost smiled. "Excellent. I will turn the briefing over to General O'Neill for a refresher."

Jack gave Woolsey a sarcastic grin and spoke up. "Refresher, you say? Alright." He turned to everyone around him. "Someone hired a Private Military Corporation, RedScope Industries, to hunt down SGC personnel. As Colonel Carter has found out from examining their computer files…" he motioned to Sam reverently before continuing. "… certain members of the SGC were targeted specifically, but we're being hunted as a whole when we're off-world."

No one could really say anything, this much had been obvious ever since raiding RedScope, but who the specific targets were was still a mystery.

Jack continued. "We're not sure exactly who's hired them, but we do know that they're an off-world threat including minor Goa'uld." Jack turned to Sam and nodded gently. "Colonel Carter will bring us all up to speed on what she learned from RedScope's computers." He turned to Sam. "Carter?"

Sam nodded back and tapped a few keys on the computer turning on the screen behind her. A map of the world showed up from Google Earth. "RedScope's computers were relatively intact, but it seems they specifically focused on certain aspects of their accounting files. As such, we've been unable to deduce _who_ exactly hired them." She clicked a button and the map zoomed in.

Vala began to snicker off to the side. "Oh this is my part?"

Sam blushed a little in embarrassment, but she kept her poise. "Yes Vala, as utterly ridiculous as this sounds, we've been able to confirm how RedScope managed to get Earth weapons offworld."

The screen continued zooming in on the eastern seaboard of the United States, eventually zeroing in on the District of Columbia, and finally RedScope industries. A few people noticed the cargo ship, but others were confused.

Sam pulled her pen out of her shirt and flicked on the laser pen portion of it. She highlighted the Cargo ship in the garden. "Despite the odds, it seems that Google Earth managed to snap a picture of this Cargo ship a few months ago."

Vala smiled and looked around expectantly. "My idea."

A few snickers, but the teams kept their cool. Sam noted that Reynolds and Teldy were more angry than anything. Their other teammate, Ronald Greer simply looked impassive.

Sam continued. "Yes… Vala was the one to find this using… _Google Earth…_" Sam resisted shuddering, and waiting for the low chuckles to stop, she clicked to the next slide. "In any case, we've discovered a lot more on RedScope's servers." The image behind her resolved into what appeared to be a large list of equipment and weapons. "This is what we were able to recover of RedScope's recent purchases. Most of this is actually equipment similar to what we have here in the SGC, high end computers, building materials for subterranean infrastructure, as well as a wide array of weapons and accessories like cameras and sensors. Quite literally, they have enough equipment to outfit an entire company of soldiers with specialized weapons and armot.."

The laughter had stopped, every trained soldier here was reading the list and saw that there was some very serious firepower there. Reynolds held his hand up and Sam nodded. "Yes, Colonel?"

Reynolds grumbled as he spoke. "That's _a lot_ of equipment. Are you saying they might have a base off-world?"

To everyone's surprise, Woolsey was the one who answered. "We're not saying they _might_ have one. We're saying we know where it is. The Goa'uld we captured at RedScope has… _divulged_ his information and the IOA is not comfortable having Earth technology out there that isn't regulated. Besides the fact that should they're putt a rather unfriendly face on Earth for our potential off-world allies. So we're going to… _confiscate it._ "

Everyone in the room went silent, the SGC had rarely ever launch a bonafide attack, and least of all against people with earth training and weapons. Sam seemed to read everyone's mind as she continued,. "We've also been able to decode their personnel files. We've been able to account for the majority of their employees, but there are fully fifty four ex-soldiers and technicians who we can't find _anywhere_ on this planet. It's like they've vanished from the face of the Earth…. Or…" She clicked to the next slide, and an image of a large castle like structure appeared in a three dimensional representation. "They've gone to their off-world base."

Daniel squinted as he looked at the castle, and he did a slight double take. "A castle? They built a _castle_ as their off-world base?"

Sam shrugged as she input a new command into the computer. "Not exactly."

The screen moved into a cross section, and it became clear that the castle was just the tip of the iceberg. Below the castle, 4 large sub-levels that looked similar to the SGC appeared. One large room in particular housed a specific item everyone recognized.

Sam clicked her laser pen again and highlighted areas as she spoke. "From the outside, it may look like just a decaying castle, but a Tok'ra scout ship in the area we were able to contact was able to detect what looked like hangar doors, as well as almost a dozen weapon emplacements on the actual battlements."

Teal'c furrowed his brow and spoke deeply. "Have you not sent a UAV or MALP through the Stargate?"

Sam shook her head and pursed her lips for a second before replying. "No… we have the address and we could dial the planet at anytime. But as you can see, the stargate is _inside_ the base and likely under heavy guard. Given how much they know about our own operations, it's conceivable that they even have an Iris of sorts, we've seen the Goa'uld use them before."

Jack shifted in his chair and took the reins from Sam. "This is a hell of a lot worse than it looks. They were able to get an entire base worth of equipment and men off-world without us even noticing. Our planetary defenses are _pathetic_ and we still don't know who hired them. There's nothing stopping whoever it was from dropping a nuke in DC, or exposing the whole stargate program to the world making us the bad guys."

The larger issues were becoming clear, and what needed to be done was obvious. Reynolds again was the one to reply. "So what's the plan, sir?"

Jack smiled, and he motioned to Woolsey to continue, Sam sat down and breathed out trying to stay calm, the plan Jack had told her was still reeling, but it was the only way. "Because of the inherent danger of unregulated activity off-world by Earth peoples, the President has authorized the use of force to apprehend these people. Alive if possible." Woolsey left the last bit to their imaginations, everyone knew that when it came down to it, killing was just a part of the job. "Since recieving these orders ,I have agreed with General O'Neill that this be a highly classified operation. Only SGC personnel will be used, and Odyssey has been requisitioned. General O'Neill himself will be commanding the mission to lower the possibility of potential leaks.."

Jack smiled softly, it certainly felt nice to be back in the action again. At least he'd have a comfortable chair this time. "Because we're trying to capture these people to see who hired them, we're going to launch an alpha strike style attack. Odyssey will move in under cloak, we'll drop off several teams to infiltrate the base and take it over. To prevent them from getting away, we'll signal Earth when we get there to dial their gate trapping 'em. That'll give us 38 minutes to get in, and take as many of em down as we can."

The officers in the room all gave mixed reactions. Thirty-eight minutes was both an eternity in combat, and not a lot of time given the mission. Sam looked to Jack and took control again. "It shouldn't be too much of a problem to actually get inside, the hard part is going to be once we're inside, we have no clue what to expect." She clicked the remote again and a live feed came onto the screen of an orbital position above the castle. "Because of this, we're going to actually set up a small command post in this village near the castle." She highlighted it with her laser pen. "It's close enough to serve as a firebase, but far enough to avoid any direct retaliation. The Tok'ra have said that the castle itself seems well defended, but they weren't able to pick up any sensors on the outskirts."

Jack pulled out his own laser pen and highlighted the village. "Odyssey will beam down the strike force and provide fire support. The Tok'ra say that those sub-levels are shielded against sensors so it's unlikely we'll be able to beam in there anyway." Jack then got up and pointed to specific locations. "Once we dial the gate, you'll move in. Three teams." He motioned to Sam who then clicked the next slide up showing the different teams.

There was mild grumbling, but everyone relented to their assigned teams. Sam knew Daniel and Vala would be pissed they weren't going to be a part of the ground operation, but this was different from their standard recon missions. This was war, and war needed soldiers.

The briefing continued in an orderly fashion, evidence from RedScope and their ties with a Goa'uld were gone through, the bullets from Reynolds and Walker were identified as a lighter caliber, further proving that Earth munitions had made it off world. Sam kept her attention focused on the mission though, and less on the fact that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to put her and her comrades into the ironsights.

* * *

Sam was one of the lucky few to get her own quarters on the Odyssey for the duration of the trip. The attack was tabled for dawn the next day, so the entire strike force was getting much needed rest.

She'd been expecting someone to show up sooner or later, this _was _a bit more of a personal mission to her than usual. "Come in."

The door slid open, and Daniel walked in looking a little somber. "Hey Sam." He moved in seeing her lying on the bed with her hands behind her head. "How you holding up?"

Sam shrugged, it was just another mission. "I'm fine, this isn't the first combat mission I've been on."

Daniel nodded back as he sat down on the table beside her bed. "But this is the first time in awhile we're fighting… _Earth_ people."

The thought had crossed her mind a dozen times. "You're right… these aren't Jaffa or Ori…" She sighed heavily and swung her legs out over the bed to get up. "You know, I read the reports on the security guards we took at RedScope. None of them were Goa'ulds, or Za'tarcs, or even brainwashed with that Goa'uld powder stuff."

Daniel smirked ruefully. "Nish'ta'nael."

Sam nodded as she rubbed her hands together. "Yeah that's it…" She pushed herself up and stretched her arms. Daniel thought she looked tired, but now he could see that she was actually exhausted. "It's weird you know?" Sam turned to Daniel as she sat down on a chair opposite the bed. "I remember when I first started flying combat missions. Back in Gulf War 1."

Daniel had heard about Sam's previous career before the SGC, but not in detail. He also didn't know Sam to be one to talk about it so this was obviously bothering her a lot more than she was letting on. "They let women fly combat back then? I thought that was a recent development."

Sam nodded. "I was one of the first." She sighed and rubbed her hands together. "I still remember my first mission. Took off from Big John in an Eagle… first wave into Iraq."

Daniel furrowed his brow. "Big John? Eagle?"

Looking up from her hands, Sam realized she was still in military mode. The view of Earth's orbital horizon in the window felt oddly fitting given her story. "Sorry… the USS John F. Kennedy, aircraft carrier, I was flying an F-15E Eagle." Daniel nodded that he understood and Sam continued. "EF-111s flew ahead of us painting targets… I never even had to choose. The target just popped up on the HUD and I had my finger on the trigger."

Daniel still remained silent, simply listening and assuming that there was a point to the story.

Sam continued. "The weapons hot order came in and I didn't hesitate. I had so much to prove back then." She smiled ruefully, then rubbed the bridge of her nose. "The infrared image I was getting stayed clear right to the last second, I had already fired and all I could do was watch. Just before the missile hit, I saw people moving around."

Now Daniel understood. He'd heard that pilots didn't feel the same when they killed than ground forces. It was almost impersonal. "That must have been…"

Sam looked at Daniel with an odd look. "That's just it. The missile hit, I get a target destroyed indicator… " she paused for a moment, then finished. "…and that was it." Sam remained quiet for a moment, letting the admission sink in. "Two more targets, and we came back to the ship. My wingmates are proud, I'm finally _'one of them'_" Sam sighed softly, then looked down at her feet. "That was the first time I ever killed anyone… and the first time I realized what that meant."

Daniel gulped, and he remembered his own story. "I know what that's like… before Abydos… I didn't even like stepping on roaches."

Sam nodded, then smiled at Daniel. "Desensitized. Sometimes I forget that."

Neither needed to say anymore about it, and the subject changed as they continued to chat.

* * *

"Marks? The hell are you doing here?"

Jack hadn't been expecting anyone but the few technicians needed to run Odyssey to be here for the mission, so seeing the serious Major standing above a console preparing the ship for hyperdrive was a bit of a surprise. "General, sir. I heard about the mission and wanted to volunteer. Sorry I couldn't clear it through channels but as this is a secret mission, sir…"

Jack furrowed his brow and turned to Vala and Teal'c beside him. "Secret, he says." Turning back to Marks, Jack furrowed his brow. "Then how'd _you_ find out? I'm a little worried what with it being secret and you being on leave and all?"

Marks stiffened his posture and nodded respectfully. "All due respect sir, when something happens on this ship and I _don't_ know about it, that's when you should worry."

Jack snorted softly, There was a reason the Major had been promoted so fast and now it made clear sense. "Alright then, take your post." Jack then turned to Vala. "You got cleared on navigation and sensors right?"

Vala nodded. "Not too different from an Al'Kesh."

Turning to Teal'c, Jack didn't even say anything. It still prompted a response from Teal'c. "I shall bring Daniel Jackson."

Jack shrugged a bit and looked out to the window where the sun was slowly setting on the orbital horizon.

* * *

Cam ran his hand along the lines of the fighter and recalled days gone past. This baby was tough as an M1 Abrams, nimble as an F-35B Lightning II, and armed like an A-10 Thunderbolt. A dark memory came back to him, but it quickly faded as he realized it was the beginning of his career in the SGC.

"Deep thought?"

Turning, Cam smirked to Sam as she chuckled watching Cam admire the F-302. "Well the answer isn't forty-two, so no." He got up from his crouched position and rubbed his face, there were still fourteen hours until the projected arrival at the planet where RedScope had built their off-world base. "Can't sleep either?"

Sam shook her head and hopped up onto the wing of the F-302. "Nah… need to burn some energy first." She moved up and took a look into the cockpit. "Everything check out?"

Cam groaned softly and hooked his thumbs in his pockets. "Yeah but… Much as I love the old bird, still wish I was going down there with you guys."

Sam mused softly as she hopped down from the wing in front of Cam. "Your left ventral thruster needs some testing, I'll give you a hand replacing it or else you'll be spinning out of control out there."

Normally the flight crew would be handling this sort of thing, but with a skeleton crew, most of the pilots who'd come were busy making their last minute checks of their air craft. "Sam!" Cam wanted to complain, he wanted to say that he'd much rather be down on the ground fighting along side her and the rest of his team. But his meeting with Jack came back to him, and how Sam had defended him and his position on the team.

Sam turned with a curious glance. "Cam?"

Cam sighed, and he nodded. "I'll help, long as you don't just have me holding the flashlight."

Snickering, Sam motioned for Cam to follow as she rubbed her hands together. Cam could tell that this was her way of showing that he was still part of the team, still SG1 even though he'd be in the skies covering them from above. And in the end, he kinda liked the idea of the return of "_Shaft_".

* * *

Jack took a few deep breaths, it was almost time to go and all that was left was his orders. He turned to Daniel who was seated next to him on the bridge and sighed softly. "You mad I'm making you stay here?"

Daniel shrugged and deadpanned. "I've forgotten what it felt like to be mad at you, almost feels refreshing."

Stifling his snort, Jack smiled sarcastically ."That's _lovely_ Daniel. But do you at least understand?"

Nodding reluctantly, Daniel sighed back. "Yeah… but you're still sending Sam and Teal'c down there."

Part of Jack wanted to call the whole thing off, just drop in from orbit and bomb that base into the stone age. But Woolsey and his technical staff that had gone over the schematics Sam had pulled from the servers were pretty clear, the bunker was hardened and railguns would only seal them in… with a Stargate to escape with. It'd take a nuke to burn them out, and despite having the bunker busting munitions needed, Odyssey wasn't designed to carry them and neither were the F-302s Besides that, the President hadn't authorized that level of force. "Not my orders, but you think I want to?"

Daniel clicked his tongue and remained with his arms folded across his chest. "I think you're more pissed you can't go."

Always to the point, and Jack shifted his jaw, the only outward expression that Daniel was right. "And if I am? Does that make a difference?"

"No… but at least they'll know."

Jack had always been the kind of commanding officer who kept his feelings and emotions to himself, if the marines and air force officers he was sending into combat knew just how worried he was in pitting them against ex-soldiers with high end weaponry… that kind of worry led to casualties. "No. And you're not going to say anything to them either."

Daniel cocked his head and deadpanned. "I wasn't going to… and I wasn't talking about all of them."

It was something that still bothered Jack, but again, commanding officers didn't show worry, they didn't show pain, and they certainly didn't show favoritism. "No."

Now Daniel remained silent, whether he understood or not was impossible to tell. Jack simply remained quiet until Marks called out from his position at the helm. 'General, all systems report green, we're ready to go."

Jack straightened in his chair and tapped the com button on the armrest. "This is General O'Neill to the crew. We're ready to get underway, Engineering?"

A rather manic voice came back in response. "_Yes yes! General, sir. Felger here… sir."_

Daniel couldn't help but snicker at the way Jack resisted shuddering. Jack spoke directly and powerfully. "Everything working down there? No Snafus?"

"_N-no sir! Dr Lee is monitoring the ZPM and I'm… monitoring everything else… sir."_

Not letting the doctor get more stuttered words in edgewise, Jack nodded idly. "Good! Keep it that way." He tapped the com panel again and looked to Marks. "Major…" Jack straightened, His smile was visible even from behind and to the left where Daniel was seated. With a motion of his hand he pointed forward. "Engage."

Major Marks tried, he honestly tried, but he still shuddered just a little as he tapped the control. "Yes… Sir."

Jack obviously noticed the Major's reluctance and decided to exacerbate the problem. "Oh come on Marks, You _are_ my Number One."

Daniel palmed half his face, hoping vainly that the entire trip there wasn't one joke after another.

* * *

_**A/N:** Many answers, but even more quesitons! Will SG1 be able to lead the SGC to victory? How will the glorious return of Shaft go about? and will SG1 ever find out who's behind this? _

_Find out all this and more, in the next installment of..._

**Occupational Hazard**_  
_


	11. Prayers and War

**A/N:** Quite sorry for the long delay, Holidays were just a _little_ too fun to sit down and write, not that you would have wanted to read my writing at that point ^_^ **Sealurk** has also been quite busy hibernating with Assassin's Creed 2 and toxic levels of chocolate along _with_ the holidays:P Thankfully we both decided that it should go up BEFORE 2010 :P

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

"Someone's been doing some shopping."

Sam turned and smiled at the face staring at her. "Not me, the Air Force. Experimental armor for our teams that deal with industrial societies. It's actually quite…"

Interrupting her, Jack said. "…Scaly."

Sam snorted softly. "It _is_ called DragonSkin."

Jack admired the form fitting ceramic armor and sighed. "These are those new Naquadah armor plates right?"

Sam could see that Jack was dancing around the real issue. She knew he was worried about this operation and couldn't put it into words. He always did this, laterally worry. "Yeah, Area 51 contracted some of DragonSkin's people and made their own version." She shifted in the flexible armor. "It's heavier than I like, but it's the best we've got and we're gonna need it."

Jack looked around the armory. He hadn't seen so many weapons in years. One weapon in particular had a mean look to it. "Is that what I think it is?"

Sam turned her head and nodded. "The SCAR? Yeah, just got em. P90s are still standard but any offensive action we've got heavier weapons. In fact, it's been awhile since we've used these but for a major operation like this…" She had to be careful, Jack had full authority to hold her back on this mission and it wasn't what she wanted. Revenge was somewhere deep in the back of her mind, but Sam didn't want protection, she didn't want someone to hold her back when the fighting got rough.

Jack was able to read it right away, and he lifted the rifle out of the case and examined it. "You gonna use this?"

With those words, Jack had just assured her that she was going down there. Going on the front-lines as was her job. "Yeah… little heavier but we need good armor penetration."

Jack only listened peripherally to it. He'd done what he came here to do and Sam knew he was going to send her, but he still cared.

* * *

"All teams report ready, sir. We'll be at out destination in four minutes. Cloak ready to engage."

Jack smirked, and looked to Daniel next to him. "Engage, you say?"

Marks winced out of sight, but nodded nonetheless. "Yes.. sir."

Daniel rolled his eyes and pulled up his station. "Life support, gravity, and power systems are all up to spec." Typically he wouldn't be doing this, but with a shortage of officers who'd been trained to use these systems, Daniel found himself drafted.

Behind them both, Vala stood working next to a Captain who manned the sensor and navigation station. "We're ready here." She poked the nervous looking Captain next to her in the ribs. "Right?"

Captain Alans considered doing something flirty back, but recalling all the stories he'd heard over the weeks and months, decided to keep his dignity intact. "Uhhh right, all systems at nominal, General."

Jack watched the edges of Daniel's lips creep up. He'd heard that SG1 were the only ones capable of reining Vala in and it seemed that it was true. "Alrighty then." He tapped the communication pad on the armrest. "Mitchell, you and your boys ready?"

The intercom hissed with static, but soon Cam's muffled voice came through. "_Ready sir, Titans ready to kick the tires and light the fires."_

Daniel muttered. "Titans?"

Jack smiled momentarily. "The DarkStar Titans. It's the wing name."

Nodding, Daniel finally understood. "Oh… fitting. now that '_stronger than the gods'_ thing Cam said to the pilots makes sense."

Jack snorted softly. "We pick those names for a _reason_ Daniel."

There wasn't much more time for words though, as the blue of hyperspace flashed shut and on the screen, a pale blue green planet appeared. Major Marks swiveled in his chair and nodded. "We've arrived General, cloaking system activated."

Jack tented his fingers and bowed his head. "Excellent…"

Daniel just rolled his eyes. In a few moments, the 'battle' would begin and this whole mess could start to get sorted out.

* * *

"I'd ask if you were nervous, but even if you were, I doubt I'd ever find out."

Teal'c nodded once and stood stoically holding the drum clip loaded SCAR. "Anxiety is normal, without it, risk would be immeasurable."

Sam screwed her face in thought. "Daniel was right, you are deep.."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and gave a hint of a smile. "Indeed."

Around them, the three elite SGC teams prepared with their marine escorts. Sam watched as Reynolds nodded to Major Teldy, who after a quick nod moved off to take control of her own team for the duration of this mission.

Sam knew this was going to be a _very_ hard mission. Even with their specialized weapons, there was no telling exactly what they'd be facing. The Goa'uld they'd found on Earth with the Kull armor made things tricky here, but that's why each team also had a heavy weapons package. Sam herself had opted to go for a shotgun attachment given that she'd be entering the castle building.

With any luck, the whole battle would last only 30 minutes, maybe even less if Cam and his wing could give them good cover and take out any heavy weapons.

Sam took one last look at the maps the Tok'ra scouts had provided and silently prayed.

* * *

"Coming up on the planet sir…" Major Marks stiffened in his chair.

Before Jack could say anything though, Vala interrupted. "There's a problem, the planet is surrounded by a large amount of particulate matter. Looks like the remnants of a moon."

Jack turned and furrowed his brow to Vala. "…All I understood was matter… so what _does_ it matter?"

Major Marks decided to make it clear. "They'll be able to see us sir. The cloak bends light around us, not matter. They'll know something's up here if they're scanning."

That didn't make sense to Daniel. "Then how did the Tok'ra get information without getting found out?"

Jack already knew, and this mission had already hit a snag. "Small ship. We're a lot bigger." Internally he was cursing a blue streak. This meant that their element of surprise would be cut down. "Major Marks. Signal Earth. Have them dial the planet to hold em here."

Major Marks didn't hesitate and spun in his chair. "Yes, Sir." Inputting the information, The Major nodded. "Subspace burst transmission sent sir. Estimated four minutes for incoming wormhole, we'll be able to detect it.

Jack nodded and kept his poise. Tapping the controls, he keyed in the frequency for the teams. "This is General O'Neill, Colonel Reynolds please come in."

A moment passed, and Reynolds' voice came through the speaker. "_Reynolds here. Ready for beam down sir."_

Jack clenched his jaw for a moment, Snags were things that weren't expected. Odyssey was _supposed_ to have remained stealthed until the last minute. Now it was going to be a fight right from the start. "Problem, we can't get close enough to the planet to beam you down without them potentially seeing us. The firebase idea is more than likely a no-go." Jack took a second to think, and then looked to Daniel. "Can you put a map of the planet on screen?"

Daniel looked confused for a second, but then nodded as he got to work and Reynolds replied. _"Copy that.. order sir?"_

Jack was torn as he surveyed the map on screen, a part of him wanted to order a full orbital barrage despite the order to capture as many as possible, another part wanted to wait, and yet another wanted to call the whole thing off. Nevertheless, one part, the part that gave him the strength to push forward said… "Reynolds, Do you have a map of the area there?"

"_Yes, sir."_

Jack resisted the gulp, and saw the tactical situation with logic. "We're going to put you down outside the castle near some ruins. The firebase idea is scrapped, we'll try and take out their defenses from up here."

A moment of hesitation, and Jack knew that every soldier was preparing themselves for combat. _"Yes sir."_

* * *

Cam settled in his seat and awaited the order to launch. As soon as the team was beamed down, Odyssey would open up with its railguns from orbit taking out the castle's larger defensive structures. The images and scans the Tok'ra had sent showed a heavily fortified castle with staff cannon emplacements. The hangar that was supposedly there as well meant that he might rack up some kills today.

None of that really mattered though, not as much as supporting his team did.

The mission had just started and already it had gone FUBAR. Odyssey was about to launch its first strike and drop the teams on the planet. He knew Sam and Teal'c could take care of themselves, in fact he knew every single SG team member could, but he hadn't been in a real war type situation since Antarctica, and even then there wasn't a ground based component.

Flyboys like him got to have the fun, flying around in multi-million dollar aircraft and shooting things up. It was the people on the ground who were likely to be the ones laying their lives down.

All Cam could hope was that the hangar was taken out of commission quickly, and his wing could move in to support the teams on the ground.

Cam kept an ear on the com channels. He heard O'Neill, Reynolds, and Carter all work out a new plan. Even Teal'c joined in and offered some of his Jaffa wisdom. Many people forgot that Teal'c was the equivalent of a General in the Jaffa Army, and as such knew much about tactics. Cam didn't forget about that though and felt reassured.

Still sitting in his bird, Cam felt jittery as he watched the planet slowly come closer through the open hangar bay doors.

He heard O'Neill give the order to beam the people down, and moments later Major Marks call out incoming targets. The battle had begun.

* * *

Grounding herself in reality, Sam quickly took cover behind a ruined rock formation and watched as the rest of the SG team did the same, all taking cover and preparing for the fight.

Sam looked up to the sky for a moment, oddly jealous that Cam would get to scream the trademark '_kick the tires an' light the fires'_ of an afterburner assisted takeoff.

Earth had sent the signal, the stargate was active, thirty eight minutes and this battle would be over one way or the other. Sam hefted the FN-SCAR and gave her last prayer _'Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.'_

Looking at the Castle, Sam thought _'Screw that'_, Sam was going to live today and prayer wasn't going to save her. "Snipers! Take aim!"

The new cobbled together plan was simple, Odyssey would fire its railgun barrage as a missile strike would likely take out the SG team as well from the shockwaves. It was a new tactic as prior, only missiles would be able to survive reentry and achieve a proper target lock. The relatively small ten millimeter railgun slugs had been specially designed for orbital strikes in order to provide pinpoint accuracy and a high yield. The scientists at Area 51 had designed the warhead so that the heat of reentry would melt the protective Trinium jacket and actually cause the naquadah core of the slug to detonate on impact, causing severe yet very localized damage.. Sam had done the math and each shot was the equivalent of an 120mm HEAT round.

Only a few seconds, that's all they needed to wait.

So as Sam looked up at the castle that housed their target, she looked up in awe as the tracers of the railgun barrage fell through the sky, boiling the clouds and leaving hot steam trails. Then gasped in horror as the shells shattered against nothing, the impact sending waves across the shield that protected the castle from attack.

* * *

"_A shield!?_ Why didn't the Tok'ra see that?!"

Vala of all people replied. "I'm guessing it's an Al'kesh shield they just put up. If they've hooked in generators to it, it can take much more punishment than a standard Al'Kesh."Vala then called out. "Speaking of which, three Al'Kesh are coming at us from opposite the planet. They were already in the air along with a wing of gliders plus what's coming at us from the ground."

Too much was happening too fast. The castle was defended, the asteroid moat had given away their cloak, and now the cavalry was approaching them. Only 37 minutes remained for the teams down below, words and thoughts would have to wait. "Tell Cam to target the ships coming from the planet! Marks! Charge those ships in orbit! All power to weapons!"

Not caring about the reference, Marks nodded and tapped in the controls. "Yes sir! Optimum weapons range in 2 minutes, Titan wing will be in range in 20 seconds."

Jack held back his concern. The teams on the ground were on their own for now, and he prayed that whatever god existed, he would stand between them and the bullets likely to be flying towards them now. "I don't care how you do it Marks, I want these skies clear and a clear shot at the ground ASAP."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Clarity was something that every pilot achieved during those precious few seconds of perfect flight. Cam had felt it before, the first time he launched off an aircraft carrier, that day over Antarctica, and now as he led the charge towards the wing of death gliders supporting an Al'Kesh. "Alright, listen up kiddies, Gliders first, and watch for that Al'Kesh's main gun. Watch your IFF This is gonna turn into a furball and I don't want any blue on blue, copy?"

Several acknowledgements, and Cam let out one last breath and his ECO muttered. "Face first into hell, sir?"

Cam smirked under his oxygen mask, and somewhere he thought he heard someone say something about using the force. "Long as we come out the other end."

The opening salvo was impressive, and the wing of nearly thirty death gliders was cut in half, but Cam saw several of his wingmates take fire, how bad he couldn't tell.

From there it just degenerated, and Cam struggled against gravity as he pushed the 302 into hard turns following the death gliders.

This fight was different than Antarctica, those glider pilots uses tactics from having fought other Jaffa for a long time. Cam wasn't about to let that happen again, least of all somewhere that the oxygen was a _little_ thinner than he liked. _"Shaft, Fox four!"_

As the F-302 spun around, a missile pinged off of the wing and the rocket engine ignited. It raced forward at an incredible velocity, following the glider he'd targeted.

Before he could make sure it was a hit though, an alarm beeped on his console as the left side of his craft took a glancing staff weapon shot, the heat absorbing materials the 302 was made of mostly negated it, but they wouldn't be able to take too many of those hits.

This fight was going to be a quick and dirty one, and hopefully on the ground it was going a little better.

* * *

Sam resisted popping out from behind cover and opening fire, she assumed it was an Al'kesh shield generator and only Odyssey or maybe a few 302s would be able to inflict enough damage to take it down.

Odyssey must have been busy, because with the staff weapons shots that raised columns of dirt with each hit, and the constant rat-tat of automatic weapons fire that broke off razor sharp shards of the rock they were hiding behind, Sam was more than ready for an emergency beam out. Hell she'd even be willing to accept the Star Trek jokes.

A scream from beside her, and she saw one of the Marines fall to the ground twitching, he recovered enough to roll behind better cover, his shoulder now pockmarked from a well placed bullet. His ceramic armor had shatted but it had survived the blow. They exchanged quick looks and nods. He was hurt, but okay for now.

That wouldn't last forever though, and these rocks and ruins would only last so long under the barrage of weapons fire pouring down at them from the castle.

* * *

Jack almost felt his stomach flip as Odyssey twisted into a corkscrew flight path, dodging incoming weapons fire from the Al'Kesh, but at the same time unleashing a torrent of railgun and missile fire.

The Al'Kesh responded by splitting up as the first wave of hits splashed across their shields, one Al'kesh was hit by enough firepower to knock the shielding out and it quickly fell back, trying to stay out of proper weapons range.

That didn't mean Odyssey got away scot free though, and the repetitive hits from the Al'kesh were starting to put a strain on the shields. "Shields at eighty three percent sir! One Al'kesh falling back and the other two flanking us!"

It was a ridiculous situation. Jack could already tell they were going to win, it was just a matter of time. The only issue was that there wasn't _enough_ time.

* * *

This wasn't happening fast enough, and Cam knew there was only one way to get it done. "This is _Shaft!_ _Razor_, _Ox,_ on my six!"

He'd simply called out the pair closest to him, in the furball, coordination would be key if they were going to take out that Al'Kesh.

The named pair of 302s quickly blew through the chaos and formed up. Cam prayed that they caught onto his plan as it was quite ridiculous, but at the moment, it was the only way out and down to the planet.

Slaloming between incoming staff fire, dodging both 302s and gliders that danced on the edge of destruction, Cam approached the lazily spinning Al'Kesh. It spotted them, and the mounted turret beneath the ship aimed. _"Incoming! Evasive now now now!"_

The heavy bolts of plasma streaked across the hull of his 302, his copilot cursing a blue streak as the ship groaned from the sharp bank. He continued on course though. Moving upwards to attack the Al'Kesh from the top. "_Shut yer engines on my marks and strafe the bastard!"_

Cam hoped the simple orders were understood, he was borrowing something from that crappy new show Battlestar Galactica which Vala loved because it was all about _"interpersonal relationships"_ or some claptrap. Cam had to admit, the space battles were pretty close to what they actually were in reality though.

Pulling up and dodging one last plasma bolt, Cam flicked the rocket engines off and uses his thrusters to spin the craft into a slide maneuver, his two wingmen had done the same and the maelstrom began.

The pair of 5mm Railguns mounted on the nose of the craft had almost 2000 rounds each of reserve ammunition, at a rate of fire of 800 per minute, it was almost like watching one of those electro balls you find in science centers that Cam couldn't remember what they were called as the three 302s strafed the top of the Al'Kesh. The heavy barrage first chipped away the shield, already weakened from multiple missile impacts. Firing one of his remaining 5 missiles, Cam managed to bring the shields down completely, and his ECO gave a small cheer as he'd finally grabbed the modulation frequency of the shields for the Al'Kesh, which would likely work for the castle below as well..

Cam didn't bother asking Sam about the shield modulator thingy the missiles the 302 used were all about. All he knew was that after enough hits, the missiles would just pass right through.

* * *

"Second Al'Kesh destroyed! The third one's making a run for it."

Jack looked down at his console and saw that the shields had never gone below seventy five percent, The Al'Kesh _had_ to know that it was futile, they _had_ to know that Odyssey would wipe the floor with them. Why had they just thrown away their lives? "Let him go, head back to the planet and fire all railguns at that castle I want those shields down _now!"_

* * *

Only a few times in Sam's life had she ever truly questioned whether she would survive or not. There was always doubt, but with her team watching her back, she was rarely if ever afraid.

This wasn't one of those times though, logically she knew that if they were under attack, the forces inside would try and escape through the Stargate, forget taking out the attackers, there was no chance they could take on Odyssey.

A few more people had been hit by stray fire, including Reynolds, but the entire team was keeping it frosty and making sure they were properly covered, The enemy force wouldn't bother sending out troops to flush them out, they'd just run away.

Or they would if Earth hadn't dialed the gate here. Sam had theorized that they might have an iris, or even a shield like Atlantis given the level of technology RedScope's inventory lists had mentioned. If they didn't, then Earth would launch a missile strike and try and seal the stargate area off.

She hadn't felt any quakes though, so it didn't seem likely. Instead, now five minutes into the battle, Sam heard something from up above. It took a second to decipher it from the cacophony around her, but as she looked up, the distinctive blade shape of the craft became clear… as did the sonic booms they created from their velocity. "_Hit the deck! Incoming Air Support!" _Sam hoped that the warning was heard as she screamed and covered her head.

Up in the air, Cam flicked the safeties off the final four missiles he had and input targeting coordinates. He clicked his radio on and confidently spoke as they approached the castle at supersonic speeds. "_Razor, take out the north towers, Ox, south, I've got the ones facing our team, Let em have it!"_

No need for more words,, and Cam flicked the final red cover off the firing button on his joystick. '_You just got Shafted."_

The roar of the missiles firing went unheard at the velocity they were dropping into the atmosphere, but Cam still heard his copilot. "Aw that's horrible Mitchell."

* * *

Alicia didn't know if she was lucky, good, or just plain stupid. When the railgun shots had come down and hit the shield, instead of directly taking cover, she'd ducked down into a bush and used it as a makeshift ghillie suit. She was well and clear from the main line of fire and because of that, she'd taken the last three minutes to calm down, control her breathing and deploy the bipod on her rifle.

She watched in the scope as the others had taken cover, and through the transparent shield, she noted that the defenders were well armed, mostly equipped with automatic rifles though, not the best weapons for long range.

There _was_ one exception, up above in one of the battlements. It was clear that the rifle being deployed was an M25 Sniper Weapon system. It was a hell of a rifle and as it fired through the modified shields, Alicia could tell it was a .338 Lapau Magnum load.

She'd been there for the briefing, and even more, she'd used that round before in Iraq. The automatic rifles were one thing, they were hard to aim at range, but that sniper rifle was going to kill someone, more than one person by the time the SG teams made it to the castle… if they did at all.

So forcing every muscle in her body to relax, Alicia looked around for some kind of windgauge, There, a shrub with some thick leaves not too far from the sniper. It wouldn't be the best, but it'd be the closest she could get.

Her heart was still racing though, she couldn't help that, the sheer volume of fire pouring out from the battlements was burning away the rest of her team's cover.

The sonic booms from up above that she heard over her hearing protection told her that she'd been right to take aim though, and she had the perfect viewpoint as almost a dozen missiles broke through the shielding and slammed into the heavy staff cannon emplacements. Stone and broken flesh exploded like a fragmentation grenade, the shards of devestation raining down across the battlefield through the modified shrapnel drove everyone inside crazy, everyone but that sniper.

He was a pro, and he wasn't going to be intimidated. Alicia felt fear for a moment, but it quickly passed as even more railgun fire came down, and she heard Carter's voice over her radio. _"Once the shield's down,throw smoke and rush the gates! CQC! CQC!"_

That's not what Alicia's plans were. Close Quarters Combat was for the muscle freaks and martial artists. Alicia was different.

The shields were starting to buckle from the combined fire from Odyssey in orbit along with the 302s now buzzing around above them, a few Death Gliders still antagonizing them.

'_Tu vida esta en mis manos'_

Alicia didn't dare actually say it, even the slight muscle contraction would move her rifle just a little, and turn a hit into a miss.

'_Soy la sombra de la muerte, el juez del resto de tu vida."_

The shields were almost down, and the rest of the team was preparing to move out. The smoke grenades would help, but any trained soldier knows to shoot _into_ the smoke since you're likely to hit something.

'_Dios me puso aqui… es Dios el que te da la vida… y el que me dice si la quere develta.'_

The grenades were thrown, only about thirty minutes left on the mission ticker.

'_Esta bala es bendita, esta bala salva vidas.'_

Alicia had as good a shot as she was going to get, her target a clear view away. She had orders to go for debilitating shots instead of kill shots, something about taking as many prisoners as possible. That meant a headshot was out of the question. But she had to take that sniper down shields put up with one final strike from orbit, and finally shattered and fluttered away in an impressive visual show.

'_Dios me mando.'_

Alicia gently squeezed the trigger as she'd been taught, only moving the two knuckles at the top of her forefinger. With her rifle squeezed tightly to her shoulder, the kickback of the Steyr Elite Tactical was absorbed into her body, a suppressor at the end of the barrel keeping the flash from emanating. She disliked them, but at these ranges it didn't matter as much.

Her shot went straight and true, and just as the sniper had homed in on the SG team as they jumped out from behind cover, the 5.56mm bullet from Vega's rifle slammed into the back of his right hand that held the trigger. It bounced off the hard composites of the rifle itself and into his palm, causing a grievous injury. He screamed in shock and agony and fell back, his shot going wide and the rifle falling to the floor.

The castle battlements weren't wide, and in the panic of being injured, he backpedaled right off the end and fell forty feet onto the cold unyielding stone floor of the castle.

* * *

With Reynolds to her left, and Teal'c to her right, Sam charged forward holding her rifle at the ready. The smoke grenades had worked perfectly in tandem with the orbital airstrike, and their charge forward was mostly unobstructed. The few marines with heavier weapons had used them, and the entire castle battlement was in disarray from the mass combined fire.

That didn't mean the damn door was open. "Cam!" Sam screamed into her radio.'

"_I read you, Sam! Where you need me?"_

Sam smiled despite herself, even with bullets zipping past, the odd staff weapon landing near her, and the mad adrenaline of actually laying siege to castle _(She knew Daniel would love to come up with some reference to a battle long since forgotten by the common man, but that would come later, this was now)_, it was reassuring to know that there was literally an angel of death watching over her from above. "We need a way inside!"

"_10-4! Hit the deck!"_

Sam made out the sounds, because with all the smoke she couldn't see anything going on above her, the wind suddenly increased and swept a completely dust and dirt storm around the castle, and a pair of staff cannon shots began to strafe near her.

As she prepared to jump out of the way, she felt a very strong arm pick her up and run with her. She didn't need to ask to know it was Teal'c, and that he'd seen the glider strafing as well.

A intense shockwave passed through the air, and up above in the clouds, a glider was barely visible as it spun out of control.

Sam wondered where all the ships had come from, surely RedScope couldn't have stolen them all. Either the Lucian Alliance or a Goa'uld must have been helping them, it was the only explanation.

Teal'c set her down and continued moving forward, Sam now watching his six as they approached the large wooden doors. Technically a few C4 charges and they'd be through no problem, but that would take time, and expose them to unnecessary risk.

So Sam enjoyed the show as she watched Cam's 302 buzz past a thousand feet in the air, then pull a hard hammerhead turn and open fire with its railguns.

The 2mm projectiles slammed into the door and quickly turned the area into a papermill, the ancient wood which had lasted the test of time couldn't hold against the barrage, and sending splinters out like a woodchipper, it quickly buckled under its own weight from the structural damage.

The 302 finished its run, and now the door was clear. "_Doors open kiddos! Kick some ass for Shaft!"_

Now resolute, Sam turned to the closest SG team members to her, Teal'c, Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Greer, and Sergeant Dusty Mehra. "Form up! We're first in! Go go go!" She raised her t-shirt up from beneath her armor, enough to cover her nose and mouth from the excess dust and shredded wood in the air. She noted most of the others do the same, some with bandanas.

Sam turned to Teal'c and motioned with her head, the Jaffa warrior remained silent as he led the charge into the castle. Something still didn't feel right to Sam, but she knew that more than likely she was about to find out.

The walls had been breached, and now the battle had become interesting.

* * *

**A/N:** The first half of the battle is over, and now the fun part begins, what will Sam and her team find in the depths of the dark mirror of the SGC that is RedScope's offworld facility? Is it the Lucian Alliance behind this, or something more nefarious? Will SG1 be able to catch the perpetrator in the remaining time till the stargate shuts down?

Find out all this and more, in the penultimate installment of…

**Occupational Hazard.**


	12. Pain and Fear

**A/N:** This chapter has taken me quite a while. It was difficult to balance out the level of violence with the plot, as I and my glorious beta **Sealurk** will obviously tell you. Actually I was going to up the rating to M, but decided to just keep it a high level T for now.

Rejoice, a ridiculously long chapter for those who have been waiting! :D

**Reply to Gatie: **I totally agree about Sam, but you've got to recall that she _is_ the one who got shot with a .338 Lapua Magnum round. This is a bullet they use to stop cars, and light armored vehicles. :P You do get to see more of the Sam we're used to here between the action, and the story isn't done _just _yet.

So without further adieu, the penultimate chapter of **Occupational Hazard**.

* * *

Sam led the charge into the broken castle walls under the cover of the shredded wood and smoke which still blanketed the area. Her improvised team was right behind her, covering her six and watching the flanks.

Quickly she took cover near a likely looking stone on the floor, broken loose by the earlier missile strike. The others moved to cover her as she clicked her radio and screamed. _"This is Carter! My team is inside the castle! Hold fire on heavy weapons!"_

She hoped it was enough, and to her side Teal'c's voice was barely audible over the cacophony of battle. "We have only twenty five minutes to locate the stargate…"

Interrupting him, Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Greer raised his FN-SCAR and began to fire on something moving through the smoke. Sam watched as the disoriented mercenary shook from multiple bullet hits, blood spurting out from each impact as his armor was penetrated by the heavy 7.62 rounds of the FN-SCAR, he clutched his chest as he fell to the ground, probably wondering why he couldn't feel a heartbeat anymore.

Sam didn't like having to kill, but at this point it was probably the only way to get inside fast enough.

Looking around quickly, trying to find a way inside the main structure, all Sam could see was a stone ramp leading from the battlement to the center tower; it was likely the only way inside left.

That meant they'd have to run out in the open along the battlements. Sam looked up and watched as another mercenary, this one firing his weapon suddenly took a hit and fell back and over the battlement. Sam winced as the man's scream was cut short by the ground, his body landing like a broken sack of potatoes, instantly dead with a grimace producing crunch. "Come on! we have to get inside!"

Nobody questioned Sam's orders, Greer stayed to the rear of the pack, watching out above for any mercenaries who would think to ambush them. Sam and Teal'c stayed ahead with Dusty sticking to the middle, watching their flanks on the ground.

Teal'c had just hopped over a broken stone on the ground when the wall behind him began to pockmark - someone was shooting at him.

Sam followed the tracer fire and saw a mercenary on the stairs to the battlement, He was firing madly, blood seeping out of the side of his head. Sam raised her rifle instinctively and pulled the trigger.

It had been a long time since Sam had killed another human being in such a fight, but seeing Teal'c spin around and fire off another burst at another attacker through the smoke, she knew now wasn't the time to worry about such things.

The mercenary on the stairwell fell back as the bullets pushed him back into the wall, coating it with his blood from the fully penetrated hits. He slid down the stone with his eyes losing all sense of life, a large blood smear giving the wall a fresh coat of death. Sam realized that most of these mercenaries were stunned and disoriented, at that range he shouldn't have missed an opening fire.

A scream from behind her told her that there were more of them around here than she'd anticipated, and Dusty had just found one. Sam didn't see it, but a moment later she heard a loud _thwack_ and saw two figures moving towards her. It was Greer and Dusty. "We're okay ma-am! Let's keep going!"

Unsure of how to respond to Dusty, Sam simply motioned with her head. "Come on!"

Now reaching the stairs, Sam crouched low and switched to her shotgun attachment. She had plenty of ammo for both weapons and at these ranges, a shotgun would definitely prove its worth. Teal'c remained by her side, silent, protective. Greer and Dusty both scanned the sides, watching for targets of opportunity.

As they were about to reach the top, Sam called out on he radio. _"This is Carter! My team is on the battlement! Watch your fire!"_ Already she'd been shot once this month, she wasn't in the mood to experience it again. She heard an acknowledgement but was suddenly more concerned with the mercenary on the floor ahead of her.

He was dragging himself to his feet, and he was armed. Sam could shoot him and put him down, but at this point it would almost seem cruel. So instead she charged forward and raised the butt of her rifle, bringing it down on the mercenary's back. The hit audibly broke his collar bone, and the man's muffled scream died out as Sam gave him one last lash with her boot, finally putting him far away from consciousness. ere wasn't time to bind him, so Sam simply kicked his gun away and pointed to the ramp leading up to the battlement. "Sergeant! Flashbang!" It didn't matter who threw it, as long as it hit the target. Greer pulled out a flashbang from his vest as Dusty spun to cover him, the entrance was wide open and the perfect place for an ambush.

Sam looked at Teal'c and nodded, They both knew the flashbang would only stun any targets inside for a few seconds.

Greer wound up and threw the primed grenade, everyone covered their ears and turned away, The loud pop and white wash was barely noticeable to them in the chaos of the battle, but whoever was inside had likely taken a grievous blow.

Now rounding the bend and heading up the ramp, Sam could see another two or three people inside, they were disoriented and clinging to the walls, perfect targets for a rifle butt.

Together with Teal'c, Sam lashed out with her rifle butt, catching one mercenary across the jaw sending him back into the wall. He cracked his head against the hard stone and fell to the ground unceremoniously.

The other two had recovered somewhat, but Teal'c made simple work of them as he grabbed their collars and slammed them into the wall face first. The impact was strong enough to break their noses, and a mixture of blood, saliva and mucus remained on the impact site.

Again, there just wasn't time to bind them properly so Sam got on her radio. "_Colonel Reynolds! Where are you!?"_

It took a second for the return transmission to clear up, but Reynolds' voice was obvious. "_In the castle! We've taken some casualties but we're moving ahead to the hangar! Marine Squad Alpha moving in to assist you inside! Over."_

Casualties, Sam didn't know if that meant wounded or dead, but looking out from the main structure entrance, she knew that worrying about it would only cause her to hesitate. "Copy that Colonel, we're going in."

Sam turned to Greer and Dusty. "Watch yourselves, we've got no idea what's down there."

The two soldiers nodded, and raised their weapons, They entered into the castle's depths and instantly the battle's pacing changed.

The walls were still made of stone, but every few feet there was a recessed light, only enough to see, not enough to see clearly, A thin haze permeated the air, giving an odd sense of wariness.

There was an eerie silence inside this place, and Greer muttered as he moved forward. "This place smells like death."

Dusty groaned softly and mused. "It's creepy is what it is… these assholes must have the worst interior designer ever."

Sam refused to let her subordinates chatting confuse her, She simply moved ahead with her shotgun at the ready and found a likely set of spiraling stairs. Teal'c however summed it up in one word as usual. "Indeed."

* * *

"How much longer Marks?"

The Major was busy coordinating both air support, as well as landing procedures, he spared a glance at the atmospheric sensors and called out. "Nineteen minutes sir, we'll be in the air in twenty one."

Daniel sighed and wrung his hands together. "This is crazy, Jack."

Jack simply shrugged. "Ever seen a UFO?"

Daniel was about to shake his head, but then thought better of it. "If you're trying to intimidate them, I think this is overkill."

Tenting his fingers, Jack was quite pleased with his latest insanity. "That's the point, you think any of those mercs'll keep fighting if the see Odyssey hovering over them?"

Turning to the aft console, Daniel checked his sigh as Vala continued to pester the poor Captain with a myriad of questions and insinuative comments about how power conduits worked. "No… but it's still crazy."

Jack smiled sarcastically at Daniel and deadpanned. "Wacko."

* * *

"Secondary thrusters are out, primaries damaged, we won't break orbit like this."

Turning slightly, Cam noticed the 302 was pushing a bit to the left, he had to fight to keep it in control. "What about backups? Come on! This plane's got three engines!"

Rocko shook his head. "That's a negative, we took alotta fire in space, the rest of the squad is still hovering but we won't last longer than ten minutes the way we're burning our engines out."

Cam growled, he'd thought he'd dodged more fire than that. "See any good landing strips? I think O'Neill'd get pissed if we just dumped the umpty billion dollar plane." He looked around and saw several plains around, but few that looked flat enough to land safely.

"No dice, guess we shoulda pushed for that VTOL upgrade huh?"

Mitchell scoffed, he'd been wanting to get on the ground and into the thick of the fight, but this wasn't the way he wanted to do it. "Alright Rocko, I'm aimin' fer that lake. Least we'll be able to salvage the fuselage. Hope you brought a change of boxers cuz this is one hell of a kick in the ass."

Rocko chuckled. "You punch outta one of these before?"

Shaking his head, Cam replied. "I _wish_ I had." with the plane now aimed, Cam took a hold of the eject levers by his head. "Eject, Eject, Eject!" Yanking the levers, the entire cockpit assembly of the F-302 fighter interceptor fired up and out of the craft, once gravity had taken over and it was on a decent, a trio of large parachutes spat out and began a controlled decent.

The now pilotless fighter spun lazily in the air, trailing smoke and exhaust. Eventually it came down without a clatter in the lake next to the castle, any fish inside likely scared beyond belief.

* * *

Sam bit back her disgust at what she was seeing, the amount of blood on the wall and floor meant that someone… more than one person had died here. "It's fresh… it just happened."

Teal'c became guarded, his arms flexing as he held his rifle. "Indeed, it appears RedScope has internal security problems."

Dusty was grimacing at the sight. "Why would they kill each other? Doesn't make sense."

To their surprise, Greer growled and stated as if it was a fact. "They're killing the civilians, people who know what's going on. I've seen this before in Iraq."

Sam realized that he was right, and the mission had taken an even greater risk. Behind them, the distinctive sound of heavy footfalls told her that Marine Team Alpha had arrived. "Agreed, let's pick up the pace so we can find _someone_ who knows what's going on."

The Marines arrived and nodded respectfully, each of the six man squad moved in to cover Sam's team from all sides, and the now ten person strong unit moved ahead.

The sound of gunfire ahead alerted them to enemy presence, and Sam crouched and hugged the wall. There was a fork in the path ahead and she realized that in these confined corridors, a -person squad was a perfect bullet soak. "Split up! Greer, Mehra, take three Marines and flank out, report anything strange."

They acknowledged the order, and Teal'c growled softly as he often did. Sam turned and nodded, Teal'c instantly understood and he waved the Marines into tow.

Sam crept forward, mindful to not make a clatter and remain stealthy. She reached the end of the corridor and carefully leaned out to get a better look.

There were three Mercenaries there, each armed with automatic weaponry, and two of them were dragging bodies. _"Ridge says hold em off, 'nother fifteen minutes and we're outta here."_

"_Bastard says he's got a surprise cooked up, so lets ditch these freaks and get to the gate. Don't wanna be late."_

Sam bit back her anger, those men had just murdered two non-combatants. Deciding whether they were guilty or not wasn't Sam's job, she opted to remain stealthy and follow the three men. She made hand motions to the soldiers following her and they began to move out,

The mercenaries had dropped the bodies into an alcove where there was already another, probably just so they wouldn't trip over them.

She could barely hear them at this range, but they spoke with gruff voices, the kind of thing you pick up from being on patrol for days, weeks on end. Sam looked at the Marines behind her and realized that the only difference between them was one simple and yet almost ludicrous thing.

Greed.

Continuing to follow them, Sam checked her watch, another fifteen minutes before the stargate shut down. As much as she wanted to remain stealthy, she realized that it wasn't going to go down like that. She turned to her team and made the hand motions to signal debilitating shots. They were going to take those mercenaries alive.

Creeping forward at a faster pace, Sam switched from shotgun back to rifle mode, a shot to the leg or shoulder would put them out, and with backup now, she could leave someone to bind them and make sure they stayed put.

They'd just followed the mercenaries to a large ramp-like hallway, According to the map she'd found on RedScope's computers, they were only a level above the Stargate room, maybe five minutes if they didn't wait up.

Now with a clear shot, Sam took aim and nodded to Teal'c who stepped out beside her.

The 7.62 bullets fired from Sam and Teal'c rifles easily tore through the ballistics armor of the RedScope mercenaries, screaming in sudden agony. Two of the mercs were down on the floor twitching in pain as they tried to hold their gaping wounds. The third one in lead, ostensibly the leader, turned and fired a snapshot.

The marines alongside Sam reacted instinctively, and within a second the mercenary had thirteen bullet holes throughout his body. He trembled once, and fell to his knees. The man's blood sprayed out from the wounds and moments later, he fell onto his back, white as a sheet.

As they stepped out into the hallway to ensure they were down, a sustained burst of yellow plasma suddenly spat out from the end of the hallway, A kull warrior's weapon.

Sam tried to dodge, but she still took a hit along her shoulder. The ceramic plates heated up intensely and burned through her shirt, bonding the material to her skin. She screamed in pain but still managed to tear off the vest, taking the top layer of her skin with it. It wasn't a fatal injury but it hurt tremendously. She took cover behind the hallway, the armor sizzled as the ceramic glowed red hot.

Teal'c had managed to dodge the incoming fire, but two of the marines with them had taken fire as well - one screamed in pain as he tried to remove the searing armor, the other motionless from the shot to his lower neck.

Sam bit back the pain and focused, It wasn't a Kull warrior, it was just a man, a man wearing bulletproof Kull armor. Enough fire and it would disorient him. She cried out, her voice shaky from the pain. "_Suppressive fire!"_

The remaining members of her team did as they were told, and the entire hallway became riddled with bullet impacts, ricochet, and empty cartridges.

Teal'c rolled away from incoming fire and dragged the still wounded Marine along with him. The unwounded Marine covering him with thunderous suppressive fire.

It all seemed futile though, as through the smoke, the armored figure stalked forward.

Sam realized that they'd have to use grenades, which in this closed environment was likely to hurt them just as bad. But she was _not_ going to be killed by a Kull Warrior, even a reasonable facsimile.

To her surprise, grunts and screaming were suddenly heard in the hallway, the distinctive sound of a woman's voice. "_How ya like that tin man!?"_

Sam leaned out with her rifle, and saw two figures wrestling with the armored figure, Greer had jumped the Kull from the side and used the strap of his rifle as a weapon, looping it around his arms and twisting, pulling the armored figures arms back and holding him down. Dusty beating on his face with the butt of her rifle.

With ferocity, Greer controlled the man's motions and slammed him time and again against the walls like a ping-pong. Greer screamed unmentionable curses as they wrestled.

Now disoriented, The man in the armor tried to buck Greer off while lashing kicks out at Dusty. Sam watched in shock as Greer twisted the strap even harder, and lifted the Kull warrior onto his shoulder.

Using him as a battering ram, Greer hit the wall and tugged back hard, He kept tugging until a pair of loud pops was heard and the armored figure howled in agony. Greet had dislocated both his shoulders in the savage attack, crippling him into unconsciousness from the pain and putting him out of the fight.

Sam let her adrenaline lower, she was unarmored now and vulnerable. But remembering what the mercenaries had said, she knew they only had minutes to go.

* * *

"Cam?"

Cam skidded to a halt, armed with a P90 and still wearing his flight suit, he was _very_ out of place compared to the heavily armored and armed marines and air force soldiers. "Hey Anne, fancy meeting you here!"

Standing by a broken piece of tower using it for cover, Major Teldy waved Cam over. "How'd you…?" Realizing that she didn't have time for a complicated answer, she groaned softly and just motioned with her head. "Come on! Reynolds is down and we need to regroup! Vega's got the injured behind cover in that hut there but we've got a problem."

Forcing himself not to worry too much about the wounded as it was distracting, Cam crouched as a staff blast flew over their heads warning them that there was still a fight to be had. "Always one…" Cam moved over to the edge of the rock and peeked out quickly before pulling back. Moments later the rock shook and shattered as a burst of automatic fire washed over it, forcing him behind cover. "Shit, they've got the hangar garrisoned."

Teldy nodded and groaned softly as if in pain. "Yeah, Reynolds tried to flank 'em but they've got too many high positions. Most of our people who aren't wounded are pinned down over there…" She pointed to an outcropping of trees and rocks, gunfire poured out and staff blasts and bullets kept them there as they rained down upon their cover. "I tried to call Odyssey but there's too much interference, something scrambling our radios and we're fighting blind."

Turning, Cam now saw that Teldy was indeed injured. Her ceramic armor had a whole section that looked broken and shattered right by the side of her stomach. She'd caught a round and the way she leaned to the left showed how tender a bruise it must have been. "Great…"

Cam took a few seconds to think, the radio in the cockpit likely was just as jammed as the ones the teams were using, though it was not like Rocko could do anything about it, he wasn't nearly as trained in ground fighting and opted to 'protect' the ejected cockpit. Cam didn't blame him, not everyone was suited to dodging bullets.

Looking around the corner, he spotted the castle wall which led parallel to the hangar where fire was coming from. He spotted the hut where the injured SGC personnel were being kept, and quickly got a bad idea. "You got any C4 Annie?"

Major Teldy growled softly in her throat. Cam was a friend, and that was the only reason apart from a nasty bruise on her stomach she didn't kick his ass.

* * *

Sam nodded and used her fingers to run the countdown, Greer and Mehra each held flashbangs and waited till she counted down to throw them.

The large warehouse-like room was lined wall to wall with crates and weapons lockers, there were four mercenaries inside and they were standing between Sam's team and the gateroom. She'd sent the marines to do the same flanking maneuver as before, hoping that the pincer move would defend against any counterattack as well as put a quick end to the fight in the gateroom that was sure to come.

The stun grenades exploded and both blinded and deafened the men who were inside gathering weapons, expensive hard to get weapons built by Earth's top gun manufacturers.

Breaching into the room, the team moved quickly, Teal'c dropped a hard chop on one mercenary's neck, instantly knocking him out of the fight. Greer and Mehra teamed up on the one somewhat alert mercenary, now trying to steady his balance and aim the shotgun in his hand.

That left Sam with two hostiles, both disoriented, but quickly recovering. She lashed out with her rifle butt, quickly snapping back the masked mercenary's head and sending him sprawling to the floor. Turning to face the other, she saw him raise his rifle in her direction despite the point blank range.

Instinct took over, almost twenty years of military training kicked in and Sam leveled her rifle as she crouched and squeezed the trigger Sam had forgotten to switch back to rifle mode and instead, the shotgun attachment let loose a 12 gauge buckshot load.

At this range, even with armor the mercenary didn't stand a chance, the tight concentration of pellets caught him above his heart, the kinetic energy sending him flying back, his feet now above his head in a spray of blood.

Sam winced as she turned away to avoid the spray, but she still felt the mist wash over her face drawing her that much closer to being sick. The mercenary slammed into the jamb of the door upside down, his limbs flailing as his body curled around and finally settled onto the floor with a clatter, his blood everywhere.

The rest of the team were shocked, it had happened so fast that if they'd blinked, they would have missed it. Teal'c quickly took a position by Sam who was now breathing a little more erratically, silently giving his support in such a terrible moment.

Sam waited five seconds, just long enough to push her horror down and get back to the mission. "Come on! We've got less than ten minutes to clear this place."

Silently, the team fell into line, each knowing full well that despite Sam's scientist status, she was still a Lieutenant Colonel for a reason.

* * *

Vega's expression was dumbfounded, this was the stupidest thing she'd ever seen but evidently, SG-1 had done a lot of stupid things that paid off so maybe it was her that just didn't see things clearly. "Here sir, that's all the C4 we've got."

Cam accepted the large stack of bricks and detonators crudely tossed into a blanket to serve as a would be knapsack. "Good good…" Cam peeked out the window and saw more tracer fire. The remaining squad of marines and SGC personnel was pinned down, the area between Cam and them was completely open and devoid of cover… at least for now. "I'm gonna need you to play god while I play humpty dumpty."

Vega understood full well, 'God' was a bit sacrilegious, but the role fit. Sniping was a hard job and she'd had to harden her soul and actually look to God for absolution. _His_ role though… "Humpty Dumpty fell _off_ the wall, he didn't' bring it down with him." Realizing that she'd just corrected a superior officer, Vega quickly added. "_Uhh… Sir!"_

Cam turned to Vega for a second, his face almost that of someone about to reprimand, but he quickly turned to a smile and motioned with his head. "Yer alright Vega, now go, find a nice high point that _isn't_ on that wall…" Cam motioned with his hand. "…and don't bother with that "debilitating" shots from the briefing, I want you to put 'em down and hard."

Vega smiled, maybe she was wrong about Cameron Mitchell, at least as far as how true a soldier he was. "Copy."

Cam turned and looked over the wounded. Most were in bad shape, armor piercing rifle caliber rounds had just enough power to barely penetrate the naquadah enhanced Dragonskin armor. Cam didn't want to think about any of the dead, and there were a few he could tell weren't moving anymore.

Reynolds sat near the door, his rifle held up with one arm, the other broken from taking a hit. He was breathing heavily but didn't look like he was in shock. Cam simply attributed that to his will to survive. Hell he'd survived until now in the SGC, a feat that Cam completely respected. "Reynolds, tell everyone to brace for shockwave, This is gonna be a hell of a two hit knockout and I don't want any casualties on our end."

Reynolds nodded, and he coughed before replying. "Don't worry, just don't bring the whole castle down and we'll be fine."

Cam tied the bag of C4 around his shoulder and racked the first round into his P90. Vega was right, Humpty Dumpty _didn't_ bring the wall down with him, but all the kings horses and all the kings men were gonna get out of here alive… except those inside the hangar who were about to find out what a rockslide felt like.

* * *

The fluttering of blue light told Sam she was close. She raised her rifle and made sure it was on shotgun mode. She only had another three shells in the clip and a spare magazine on her belt. Without armor though, she'd have to be very careful about how she engaged targets.

Teal'c took point, sweeping each hallway and passage with caution. Twice he'd prepared to fire but held, only more civilian bodies.

Sam was feeling the full gamut of emotions, but she didn't have time to even consider dealing with them. Only about five minutes remained until the stargate would deactivate, giving the remaining mercenaries who'd holed up in the gate room a chance to escape. She could follow them through the gate, but it would be walking into a meat grinder.

She clicked her radio, "Marine Team Alpha, come in."

No reply, instead only garbled static, Sam quickly recognized that something was jamming their signal. She turned to her team and realized that they'd have to start the fight on their own.

There was no need to communicate beyond a few hand signals and gestures. Every one of them was fully trained and prepared to fight. Sam held back, without armor she'd be an easy target.

Greer and Teal'c were the first in. Llow and seeking cover, they entered the RedScope gateroom.

It was eerily familiar to the gateroom in the SGC, except much larger and lacking blast doors. The control room above and across from the gate was open, not even glass separated it. It reminded Sam of the gateroom in Atlantis, except all on one large amphitheatre like floor.

There were eight mercenaries guarding a Kull armored man who worked on a large device, as Sam sneaked in, she felt oddly nostalgic about it. She couldn't place it though in the heat of the moment.

The gunfire came after a scream from a mercenary. "_Contact!" _He raised his rifle and sidestepped behind a crate to take cover. The others did the same, though the Kull simply remained where he was. Sam ducked down and rolled into the small area of the control room, Dusty right on her heels.

Greer and Teal'c had taken cover behind some crates. Possibly equipment being evacuated, but it made a good bullet stop. Each leaned out and fired suppressive bursts.

Sam kept her head down, and looked around at the control room. It didn't actually end up being a gate control room, but rather more similar to an air traffic control room with subspace transmitters. A burst of bullets shattered a console right above her head, just a _little_ closer than she would have liked and crouched even further.

Dusty took the moment the mercenaries had taken to reload and rolled out of the room firing all the while, a crate nearby her destination. Her fire caught enough attention that a pair of the mercenaries tried to flank, and walked right into a crossfire from Teal'c and Greer.

Between the two rifles, a full thirty bullets ensured that neither mercenary was going to cause anymore risk to the team. The Kull Warrior now paid attention, and looking up he spotted Sam as she darted inside the control room, firing a shot whenever it was safe to do so. "So you've come for me! I thought you were dead Colonel Carter!"

Sam's ears perked up, the Kull Warrior's voice was flanged. In the chaos of the moment, and so close to the stargate, she hadn't felt the typical tinge of naquadah in her blood. But what Goa'uld's knew her? She didn't reply and instead used a lull in the exchange of gunfire to peer through the smoke and fire off a single shot towards the Kull.

The pellets from her shotgun bounced harmlessly off the hardened armor. The man groaned from the hit, but started laughing. "I'm actually glad! I was hoping I would see you face to face!"

Teal'c was getting angry from the Kull's mocking, and pushed against his crate to move his cover to get closer. The Kull saw it and raised his arms. A hailstorm of plasma spat out, quickly boiling the metal of the large crate and filling the room with smoke.

More gunfire was heard now, and Sam recognized it as that of a SCAR-H, a deeper more throaty bang than the 5.56mm weapons of the M4 family the Mercenaries were using.

In the haze, she couldn't see properly, but she kept low, and decided to move ahead a bit more.

"Come Colonel! There is much I'd _love_ to discuss with you!"

Sam knew that tone, she'd slapped more than a few people for giving it to her. _Ohhhh_ this Goa'uld was gonna pay. She didn't reply though, now simply moving ahead with her rifle at the ready.

A scream pierced the air suddenly, and Sam recognized it as Dusty's, She'd likely been hit, but immediately following it was a screech from the injured soldier. "_Asshole! That was my favorite bra! I'm gonna give you a rifle prostate exam for that!"_

Sam did a small double take, but quickly pushed it out of her mind. Before she could move more than a few feet away from the control room towards Teal'c's position, the Stargate shut down. The road was clear, and there were still hostiles around.

The Goa'uld's voice rang again. "Come Colonel! Perhaps I can find a better use for your… _talents, _than Earth could give you! I promise I'll be gentle… _at first."_

If Sam was angry before, now she was absolutely infuriated. She saw the Mercenaries try and fall back towards the stargate, but Marine Squad Alpha had finally arrived and were quickly putting the pressure on. Sam couldn't see any of her team, but she knew they had to be fighting as well.

The Kull was hers though, with a shotgun, maybe she could give it enough of a…

The plasma bolts that flew in front of her instantly stopped Sam. Maybe the Kull wasn't _exactly_ hers, but certainly they were alone in their fight. "Have anyone told you your eyes are like jewels… I can't imagine how you must sound in ecstasy, I can't wait to find out."

Sam fell back down to the ground, and from the opposite side of the crate fired a shot at the Kull. It pushed him back, but against the chest plate, it did little else. A few tracers flew above her, random fire from gods knew who. Sam pushed up off the ground and rolled back to her feet.

She heard a DHD being dialed, the Kull was trying to get away. He continued to mock her even as she now crept around the large device he'd been working on. "I shall not take you today, but I will take you… sooner or later you will be mine in all ways!"

Sam was right around the corner, the Goa'uld had finished dialing and the gate was about to activate.

She couldn't let him get away, and her weapons were useless, Sam needed to end this now and at this moment, all she had left was one option.

She timed it as close as she could, the Goa'uld stood defiantly in front of the stargate, uncaring of any rounds flying his way. Sam only prayed that he was close enough to the gate for what she was going to do.

As the second last chevron locked, Sam burst out from her hiding place with her rifle leveled. The Goa'uld spun, his face invisible behind the mask. Both raised their weapons to fire.

Sam got off her shot first. And the double aught buckshot of the last shell she had in her clip burst out and connected at point blank range.

The Goa'uld grunted from the overpressure, but even the heavy hit was nowhere near enough to kill it. He backpedaled from the hit and snarled, but then realized what was about to happen as the sound of the last chevron locking.

He turned and screamed as he tried to dodge out of the way. _"NO!"_

Sam watched in catatonic horror as the wormhole's event horizon splashed open, the unstable vortex crawled forward in her adrenaline fueled vision.

The Goa'uld raised his hands in defense, but it was pointless, even the Kull Armor only lasted a few microseconds against the raw energy of the unstable _Kawoosh_ before it flash fried.

Sam saw it all, never once blinking. The outline of the Kull armor in the semi-transparent vortex as it boiled away into mere nothingness was something she knew she was never going to forget.

Dropping to the floor seeking cover, all that remained of the Goa'uld was a pair of stumped, and silently steaming feet on the ground.

* * *

Vega calmed her heart down, each beat pushed the rifle just a hair of target, and at _these_ ranges it did make a difference. She kept an eye on the hangar, the remaining fire-team, as well as Mitchell who was sneaking from cover to cover to reach the castle wall next to the hangar.

Mitchell's idea was ridiculous, but it just might work. taking down the wall and using a second explosion to throw all the fragments towards the hangar was by far the best cover she could have ever thought of. That is if it worked.

Settling in, she flicked the covers off her scope and controlled her breathing, in a crouched position, it was a little harder to aim, but it didn't matter, what did was that her shots rang true.

Watching carefully, she saw Cam start setting charges along the wall, but seeing movement above him, she saw one of the mercenaries climbing over the wall with what looked like a shotgun. Taking care to aim, it was a simple matter to target the slow moving mercenary.

Before she could though, the mercenary shook from side to side as a burst of automatic fire raked him from below, She was a little surprised to see Mitchell crouched, his P90 spitting rounds.

The mercenary shook from the impacts and fired off a single shot towards Cam, it missed, but he rolled away just in time to avoid getting crushed by the falling mercenary.

The radios might have still been jammed, but she hoped Cam knew that he'd had a guardian angel even if he didn't need it.

* * *

Teal'c laid a single hand down on Sam's shoulder to steady her. The Jaffa Warrior had seen many men and women fight and push their limits, only the strongest found the will to push on, to survive despite seeing horrors of war that would break lesser people.

He knew Samantha would bury this just like she buried everything else that had happened in the last ten years. It would never surface except in the privacy of her locked quarters. Teal'c respected that, but he wasn't above giving her a silent form of consolation while the Marines Squad Alpha secured the area.

Now Sam was busy examining the device left by the Kull, Dusty had taken a shot to the chest which as far as Teal'c had understood from her scream, had somehow dislodged and damaged her support garment. Ronald Greer held his weapon one handed with the stock firmly in his shoulder, ready to fire if needed as his other hand helped Dusty who was still panting.

Sam used her knife as a screwdriver when she found a small panel, and despite a minor tremble in her hands, managed to pry it off. Underneath lay a large electrical panel, with a keypad and large almost friendly red letters counting down.

Her voice now aghast, Sam muttered. "_Holy Hannah… it's a nuke!"_

Teal'c hadn't heard Sam say that in ages, so he knew this was bad. Seeing only three minutes left on the countdown, all those old James Bond movies he'd borrowed from Sergeant Harriman now made sense.

Sam for that matter examined the device quickly, taking measurements with her hands. "I think it's a clone of Mark 9, the design is similar… I doubt they have Naquadria but even a regular nuke…" with two minutes and forty three seconds left, Sam barked orders like mad. "Teal'c! Dial the gate! Any uninhabited planet!" She looked to Greer and Mehra. "Give me a hand, maybe we can push it through the gate!"

In the still cartridge and smoke ridden gate room, Dusty grimaced seeing the seared tops of the Kull Boots in front of the gate. Teal'c used his own foot to shove them out of the way as he reached for the DHD.

Sam moved over and waved a pair of Marines over, After Teal'c had dialed, he himself joined in with the shoving, The huge bomb wasn't moving more than a few inches, easily weighing more than all of them combined.

Frustrated beyond belief, Sam grabbed her radio, then remembered. "This place is shielded… Greer! Get topside and tell Odyssey to get everyone out _now!"_

Greer acknowledged the order and almost unceremoniously tossed Dusty onto his shoulder, She began to complain, but seeing that Greer was moving _away_ from the likely to explode nuclear bomb, she only complained about not running herself.

Sam quickly ordered the Marines to do the same, but looking to Teal'c knew that there was no way in hell or any sort of Jaffa place of damnation that he was leaving her here.

Quickly prying off the electronic panel, Sam watched as the numbers continued to count down. Almost two minutes left.

Typically Sam would try and disable a nuclear device the smart way, removing the detonator which would trigger the implosion mechanism, hence rendering the entire thing inert. But with no real knowledge of how this bomb was pieced together, all that was left was the seat of the pants, utterly ridiculous, probably won't work but has to be done plans that Sam kept in a very private area of her being.

It was pulling them out that was uncomfortable though.

* * *

Dusty almost regretted forcing Greer to put her down, He was certainly strong enough to handle her weight even with her armor, but running sucked big time when one had a bruise the size of an orange in a tender place.

Still, she managed to keep up with Greer as they rounded the corner and tried to radio those upstairs, no dice.

She was just about to throw her gun to the floor when the entire hallway suddenly shook from some kind of explosion, Dust and pebbles rained down from the ceiling, and the walls cracked from the overpressure. "_OhMyGOD! It's blowing!"_

Greer turned and shook his head. "If a nuke blew, we wouldn't know it."

Still freaked out, Dusty grabbed onto Greer's arm and screamed. "_Keep running!"_

Greer acknowledged as he once again picked up Dusty, this time without any complaints from her.

Of course, when the second explosion came with a gust of wind through the hallways, Dusty was more than convinced she was about to die. So she did the only thing that came to mind given the situation..

* * *

"Tell me that wasn't you Marks." Jack eyed the falling castle wall dangerously close to the hangar where there was still small arms fire.

The Major shook his head. "No sir, we've just cleared the clouds and at atmospheric station keeping, any lower and our exhaust will risk anyone on the ground."

Daniel deadpanned. "Wouldn't want that." He turned to Jack. "Alright, we're a UFO, now what? 'Take me to your leader.'?"

A few muted snickers from the crew, but Jack remained composed. "Something like that. Give me a wideband transmission Daniel, Everyone down there is gonna hear what I have to say."

Daniel looked down at his console and then scratched his temple. "Would if I could."

Major Marks spun in his chair and nodded to Daniel. "I'll take care of it, sir." He tapped a few buttons on his console, and soon a loud double beep was heard. "You're on General, there's some jamming but Odyssey can chew through it."

Jack nodded acknowledgement, and then calmly began to speak. "This is General Jack O'Neill to any RedScope combatants on the ground. I'm not sure if you've ever watched Star Trek, but I've got a transporter on this ship that can bring you into my cargo hold completely naked. So unless you want your privates freezing on my deck, you'll drop your weapons and surrender. Anyone who doesn't in say ohh… thirty seconds, is gonna get to know the joys of cold hard steel on your bare ass."

Daniel turned to Jack in bewilderment, Major Marks simply smiled and resisted his chuckle. It was Vala though who summed it up. "Ohh, naked soldiers. This'll be better than the time Daniel lost his pants in that bog. Excuse me…" Vala brushed past the Captain manning the sensor console and walked out towards the cargo bay.

Now it was Jack who raised his eyebrows, he slowly turned to Daniel who had turned a deep puce of embarrassment. Their eyes met, and instantly all the sarcastic and witty things he could say were understood.

* * *

'"_All SGC personnel! This is Colonel Mitchell, Hold your fire! They're coming out! I repeat! They're coming out with their hands up!"_

Cam had managed to get to the fireteam after using the downed castle wall as cover. There were more wounded, but thankfully no casualties. The DragonSkin armor had proven its worth and now, the almost chain mail clad soldiers were ordering the surrendering mercenaries to get down as they began to tie them up.

Looking up in the sky, he could see Odyssey floating in the air like the Goodyear blimp, the exhaust barely causing a small wind as it circled the castle over and over. A few minutes had passed, and the small team of Marines he'd sent down into the inner depths had resurfaced.

Cam was worried, he knew Sam and Teal'c were down in the depths of the facility and nobody had heard from them. SG1 had always been lucky, but something didn't feel right.

A few minutes had passed, and to his surprise, a new team beamed down in front of him, General O'Neill at the helm. It was odd to see the General wearing armor, but the others seemed pretty unfazedl despite the extreme circumstances. Cam quickly moved over and nodded, the planet was considered a combat zone and saluting wasn't the smartest thing to do especially if there were still combatants out there. "Sir."

Jack nodded back, and looked around. "Jesus, Jericho comes to mind."

Cam furrowed his brow as he thought about it. "The bible, sir?"

With a little surprise, Jack turned to him. "Actually, yes. "

Understanding what Jack had tried to do, Cam explained. "Granma always did say Sunday School would come in handy, sir."."

Jack sighed looking at the devastation, Daniel and Vala quickly moved off to help the wounded, He wished he could have brought Dr. Lam with him but bad memories kept him from pushing that limit. "Where's Carter and Teal'c? And Reynolds?" Suddenly seeing that he was talking to a _flight suit_ clad Cameron Mitchell, Jack barked. "And what the _hell_ are you doing on the ground, Mitchell?"

Cam shrugged. "Took too much damage to land sir, had to bail out. If you're up for some fishing, she's in the lake. As far as Carter and Teal'c, they should still be inside the facility. Reynolds is wounded but he'll be okay."

Jack forced himself to move towards the wounded, he needed to make sure the price wasn't as high as he feared. "Casualties?"

Cam followed gingerly behind, he was the ranking officer here who wasn't wounded so that basically made him O'Neill's shadow while he was here. "A few sir, mostly wounded but I think we have some KIA."

Jack clenched his fists silently as he watched the unwounded SGC personnel assist those that had been wounded. The injured were in bad shape, some almost near tears from the pain. Jack hadn't seen war like this in years and it threatened to resurface the old Jack, the one who was hard enough to kill Ra. "And them?"

Cam sighed. "Mostly KIA sir, other than the ones who just surrendered, they went down fightin'. I can't tell why cuz we obviously kicked their asses."

Moving forward, and meeting eyes with Colonel Reynolds, Jack forced his gasp to remain in his throat unsaid. He saw the camaraderie, Major Teldy despite being wounded herself helped another more seriously wounded soldier up and towards the medics, the critical ones being beamed up to Odyssey and the infirmary there. "We're gonna find out why. Come on. Give me a gun."

Quickly, Cam grabbed one of the spare SCAR's lying near the hut. Passing Jack a pair of extra clips, he was a little surprised to see the older General twirl the new magazine in his fingers slyly before slamming it into the rifle and cocking it expertly.

Quietly, a pair of Marines moved in as cover for Jack. Jack himself felt almost insulted, but then remembered that it was rare that a Major General would enter a combat zone on foot, and armed. He quickly forgave them and continued inside RedScope.

As they entered the facility, they ran into Dusty and Greer, Both looking disheveled and tired from the battle, Jack paid little attention to the red mark on Greer's neck or that Dusty's hair was loose. Probably just came loose in combat and getting shot.

They spoke of a nuke, but weren't that worried because it should have gone off already, Jack grunted and knew Carter had disabled it. She always pulled the 007 moves when she needed to.

He surveyed the area, watching as the dead were laid out in rows and tagged, the recently unconscious corralled with threats of rifle butts and bullets. Jack pushed it all aside… there were more important things to attend to.

Further down he went, where now the remaining Marines and a few medics were clearing the rooms and cleaning up the mess. Several dead mercenaries, and a lot of dead civilians. There were a lot more people than the files at RedScope indicated would be here, if he included the crews of the Al'Kesh and Gliders, there were easily two hundred people on this base, most of them now dead.

Pushing ahead, the Marines cleared each room before Jack entered, with time and patience, he could see that there was a lot to learn about this place, a ton of doohickeys, gizmos, and whatchamacalits that Carter would probably love to go over. Except that Carter wasn't here.

Recalling the schematics, Jack continued down the hallway, but when something began to beep on his tactical vest he stopped. 'The hell?"

Cam instantly went pale as his own suit, and those of the marines began to beep. "That's a Geiger counter."

Jack didn't care that Mitchell hadn't used the honorific, He simply fished in his armor and saw that indeed, there were a few rads above normal in the air. Now _really_ worried, Jack moved forward with a brisker pace. Cam considered telling him to stop as radiation was… well.. radiation, but he knew not to touch this issue with a ten foot pole.

They'd just rounded a surprisingly dusty and damaged corridor when they had to stop. The schematics pointed to the stargate being right in the next room, a large room that rivaled the SGC's gate room.

Except that the hallway was full of broken rock, and completely inaccessible, the Geiger counter now beeping madly, a dangerous level of radiation.

Fighting every fiber of his body, Jack fell back, he tried his radio again and again but nothing., and from what it looked like, with those radiation levels, nothing could survive in that gate room.

* * *

**A/N:** _And the battle is over… but is the war won? What happened to Sam and Teal'c? What will investigation of the RedScope Mercenaries and Facility find? And who's the real villain behind this massacre?_

_Find out all this and more, in the final installment of…. _

**Occupational Hazard.**


	13. Irrevocable Camaraderie

**A/N:** To start, I would like to truly and deeply thank **Sealurk. **I have absolutely no qualms about saying that this story would not be NEARLY as good without his services. I would go so far as to say he should get a co-writing credit it since we worked together quite extensively on this to ensure an accurate SG-1 feel. We've already agreed, if either of us gets another plot bunny like this, we're working together again :)

I'd also like to dedicate this almost novel length story to **SlurredSpeech** on Gateworld. She and I often argue over Sam/Jack, but it always ends up with us tackle!hugging each other and playfighting :P Usually there's Jager in the mix so I don't often recall much.

And now, the finale to…

**Occupational Hazard**

* * *

"Diggers are working as fast as they can, but there's a lot of rock down there. With the radiation they're taking even longer."

Several hours now, and all they had were a dozen interrogations and next to no information Jack liked. He'd personally interrogated the ranking mercenary and all Jack had gotten were stories of subterfuge, going through the stargate, and even more to his surprise, fighting the Ori using guerilla tactics.

None of the surviving RedScope mercenaries were privy to who held the final contract, who was financing all this. All they knew was that they were getting paid as one mercenary put it 'more money than God'.

Money. Greed. Jack didn't even know what to do with his wages as a Colonel, let alone a Major General. What could these men _possibly_ need with that much money? "We're not leaving this planet until we find out what happened." That was it, and Mitchell just had to accept it…. If only Jack could as well.

Cam nodded, also tired from hours of staying awake. "Casualty report… sir." He offered the paper to Jack, who with less than enthusiastic demeanor accepted it.

All this paperwork was worse than sparring with Teal'c; names, service numbers, next of kin. Jack would rather take a Goa'uld on in hand to hand rather than have to be the one to deal with it.

But he tolerated it, namely because he was in no shape to do what the man in front of him did for a living anymore. Sure Jack was spry and agile for a sixty year old, but compared to the forty year old in front of him?

Teal'c had once put it in a very succinct way. It was back when Jack had sent off the Atlantis Expedition, Teal'c having given them a look over including one John Sheppard. This John was supposedly some Ancient gene prodigy or something, but Jack couldn't see anything that he saw as special beyond the black mark in Afghanistan. Jack had told him the story straight up and John had done good.

It was Teal'c who had summed it up when Jack said there was no real difference between them. Teal'c had spouted off some big thing about Chulak culture, but the key phrase Jack still remembered was '_…given your physical attributes, I conclude that he would sanitize the ground with you.'_

Jack couldn't really tell when Teal'c was making a joke and when he was honestly confusing words, but given that he understood the expression _'mop the floor'_ it was likely the former.

This mission had cost too much, and Jack couldn't resist feeling helpless about it. He'd been up in Odyssey, safe behind a ZPM powered shield, but in the list Cam now handed him, names, service numbers, next of kin, the kind of thing that it was up to the Generals and leaders to bring home to broken families. Jack didn't look forward to it at all.

Seven killed in action, almost a dozen and a half wounded, some severe enough to need serious hospitalization. That was the price the SGC had to pay to end the threat RedScope had posed to the galaxy. Over two hundred mercenaries and civilians were on that base with the Al'kesh and gliders accounted for, now all but twenty of them were dead. Identifying the bodies was getting to be difficult, but while most of the civilians were private sector scientists and technicians, the soldiers were almost all former US and UK servicemen, soldiers for hire.

Jack hated to admit it, but the last two names on the list hurt the most, and his muscles constricted involuntarily as he read them.

Teal'c – Missing in Action, presumed KIA

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter – Missing in Action, presumed KIA

* * *

The Hazardous Materials team leader saluted, a Major rank pin on his collar now that he'd disposed of his contaminated radiation suit.. "The radiation level is through the roof sir. There may not have been a nuclear event, but the rad level in there is beyond what we would expect from a blast that small."

Jack didn't have time for this, with Cam on the chair to the side, the conference room in Odyssey would have to do for debriefings. "Straight up."

The Major furrowed his brow for a second, but then understood. "Straight up? Nothing alive down there, sir. Humans check out at ten greys of radiation, it's easily a thousand down there. The bodies we _did_ recover were… well let's just say it'll be a few weeks before I get my appetite back."

Unable to repond to that, Jack simply nodded and dismissed the Major with a wave of his hand. Jack had seen SG-1 cheat death so many times before, he'd once even told Daniel that it was like the Archeologist had a horseshoe up his ass. This had a different feeling to it though, a dark feeling of finality.

He looked over to Mitchell and could see that he felt the same, but at the same time, Jack resented that Cam could feel that way. _Mitchell_ hadn't worked with them for almost ten years, _Mitchell_ hadn't bled alongside them as much, watched them bleed countless times, and _Mitchell_ hadn't been there when they needed it as often.

But it was an unfair assessment, and all Jack could remember was both Sam and Teal'c actions towards Mitchell, the way they treated him as one of their own, a member of the team. Cameron had proved himself by going above and beyond on this mission… but Jack still felt anguish over what happened down and below.

Calling in the next debriefing, Jack barely paid attention to Dr Felger and Dr Lee as they explained about what they'd recovered from the base below.

"So from what we-we can tell… They used a system of satellites hooked up to-to the DHD… as soon as a… the wormhole came from somewhere they'd flagged, the base would get a signal."

Jack resisted snarking. Felger was _still_ too nervous for his liking, but at least he was improving. "So that's how they tracked SG teams?"

Felger nodded and pointed to the screen behind him. "We've only been able to recover a few bits of data, but it looks like a combination of Goa'uld technologies with the stargates, and our own network technologies with satellites."

The sentence didn't make much sense to Jack, but he didn't need to fully understand it to reply. "Is it a risk anymore?"

Shaking his head, and grinning quite nervously, Felger wrang his hands together as he replied. "Uhh no… I don't think so sir. Without the proper codes and the control room in the gateroom inside the facility, all those satellites are basically space junk since we can't even track down the planets, let alone some orbiting metal. Recovering them would waste much more resources than we would gain."

Cameron furrowed his brow in curiosity. "_All_ those satellites? How many are we talking about?"

Dr. Lee fielded this question, adjusting his glasses and replied evenhandedly. "Well, without actual access to more than just the recovered hard drives and data crystals, as well as taking into account the damage from the actual explosion inside the gateroom in the facility…" Dr Lee then noticed Jack adopt a rather annoyed face, as well as the way he raised a single hand and made a pinching motion. "Uhh.. anywhere from around … five…hundred…_ish_."

A little shocked, Jack muttered. "Five _hundred!?"_

Dr Lee shrugged again and looked to Felger for support. "Well… like I said, we can't be sure. Not even the addresses of these satellites survived the explosion. With the Goa'uld's infrastructure it's conceivable that it could be even…_more."_

Felger added, seeing that Dr Lee was just digging a deeper hole. "It could be less! We just don't know."

Jack had been hearing that a lot recently, and he couldn't help but _detest_ the sudden growth of ignorance in the past day.

* * *

Daniel was hating this job, why'd he even decide to come with them? It's not like they were going to give him a gun and pit him against the soldiers on the ground.

Then again, isn't that exactly what they had done for ten years now? "You hear anything about Sam and Teal'c?"

Vala shook her head. "No…" She gave Daniel a few seconds of awkward silence. "…and it doesn't look…" Vala's voice caught as she controlled herself. Daniel could tell that it was difficult to even think about what the suspicions were, But she was a tough girl, and she finished her sentence. "…doesn't look like these mercenaries had much with them. Usually you can tell a lot about a man by what he keeps in his pockets; pictures, money, or even prophylactics… What kind of Mercenary doesn't carry money?"

Shrugging, Daniel quipped. "Or you know… pictures, ID, rare and expensive weaponry from around the world." The humor was deadpan, as was their mood. It was the only way they could even talk at the moment.

Daniel again sighed, both from Vala's odd comment to the nagging worry in his mind, Couldn't someone else do this? He was an archeologist damn it, not a grave robber. Then again…

Going through the pocket contents of the dead from RedScope was certainly a bit of a morbid task, but Daniel was just glad that he wasn't the one to actually have to fish through them. The Marines had done the dirty work and he and Vala now checked each item. Each item was tagged with a number assigned to a body, so that if anything important was found, they'd know who it was. Daniel didn't like it, but given the lack of able people on Odyssey, everyone had to pitch in. "It's all we've got. We might have stopped these guys, but we still don't' know who hired them."

Neither one of them said it, but if as they feared that something had happened to Sam and Teal'c, this was far from over. Daniel had just picked up a new sheet of crumpled paper, from body number thirty-two, and noticed that it had scribbling on it.

Smoothing out the paper, Daniel began to read the hastily written note on it, and he repressed his gasp of both horror and disgust. Jack would want to see this, and it would have to be alone.

* * *

"The hell happened to him?"

Cam turned and winced seeing Captain Gudgin in a strange looking contraption on the infirmary bed. His hips were held aloft by a gantry like device as one of the medics operated inside a giant lampshade looking cover. He mumbled in a half coherent state and drooled on the table. Next to him was an IV with a big label and large friendly looking letters that said "MORPHINE"

Cam had come down here with Jack to give support to the injured, soon to go home once Odyssey got underway. "Oh… uhh.. Marine Squad Alpha's team leader. Sam and Teal'c sent him back up when they found the nuke, one of the mercs they'd knocked out got back up and shot him in the ass… _twice_."

Jack winced. _"Ow._"

Interrupting the pair as they moved about and visited the wounded, Daniel silently slipped in and took Jack by the arm, whispering in his ear. Cam noticed immediately as Jack's eyes lit up, but it wasn't hope, instead, it was the look Cam knew came to people when they got unexpected news.

Cam didn't even bother asking, he knew he'd either find out soon, or never at all.

* * *

"_I don't know if anyone who gives a damn will ever read this…"_

"It was on one of the dead civilians, but I just checked with the medic who examined the body. It wasn't an execution. He ate a bullet Jack."

Silence, Jack simply looked down at the sheet of paper and continued reading silently. _"I killed a woman__… I did it because I didn't have any other choice. I want whoever's reading this to know…_

"We've been able to make a positive ID, Bradley Baumander, He was an accountant who…"

Jack didn't bother listening, all he did was continue reading. _"They're monsters… Ridge, Franklin, … they're not… _human_ anymore. Some of the mercenaries have mentioned gold alien parasites… I think that's what they are."_

Daniel had noticed that Jack was ignoring him, so he too quieted in the silent hallway,

"_Franklin made me do it.. he threatened my family… he said he'd leave me on some world with cannibals. I was scared. I didn't want to do it but the bastard wouldn't let up…._

"_Doesn't matter anymore, I can't live with this. Every time I close my eyes I can see her face… she was pretty, that short blonde hair, she was smiling too… what could she have done? Why did Franklin make me sit there and shoot her?_

_It's over now, I'm not worth making it back to Earth even if I survive this battle. _

"_I'm sorry, god forgive me, I'm sorry."_

Jack sighed as the letter ended, and his fist curled around the paper, crumpling it up again. He'd known for a long time that the Goa'uld were sadistic monsters, but this development made the pain right now hurt all that more, just salt in the wound.

* * *

Everyone was leaving him alone now, and Jack was glad for it. The digger team had found nothing useful, just a stargate and a broken DHD. The DHD was unusable now, unable to dial anywhere.

There were bodies down there as well, burnt and broken from the massive explosion of the nuclear device, the ridiculously massive burst of radiation slowly eating away at their corpses.

What Jack and Cam had seen in the broken hallway was barely the tip of the iceberg The HazMat team who'd been brave enough to examine what was left in the cavern said that it was a mixture of Naquadah, Uranium and Plutonium, enough to have obliterated the base, and the surrounding 10 miles if it had gone nuclear. That wasn't even counting the blast wave that would have likely damaged this planet's ecosystem for years to come.

But that wasn't the worst part, the diggers kept finding bodies, crushed, burned beyond all recognition, their insides liquefied from the shockwave of such a violent explosion in a closed environment. The only thing Jack could think of was the small mercy that dying of overpressure and blast damage was compared to radiation. He would never forget Daniel's encounter with Naquadria.

The fear inside Jack was one of pure pride. Sam and Teal'c would rather die than let that bomb take out the entire team on the ground. Of the bodies they'd recovered, none were identifiable by their armor - it would take the SGC's labs to figure out exactly who these people were before they'd been burnt to a crisp - but one of the diggers had found something, A tactical vest of DragonSkin armor, charred from the explosion yet clearly scorched, pitted and burnt from a plasma blast. A quick check had found that it was Sam's size and worse still, there was blood on it.

Jack had never felt prouder, or sadder at the same time.

Alone in his quarters, sitting at his desk, it was only a few more hours until they made it back to the SGC and Earth.

Earth. Their home planet, the place that they'd fought so long to keep safe, keep free… but not like this… Carter and Teal'c _couldn't_ have died like this. Goddamn mercenaries and their nuke. Despite all the interrogations they _still_ didn't know what fucking snakehead had orchestrated all this, if it was _even_ them. No names popped up, just money and deadend paper trails.

Jack felt all the repressed rage in his body drew itself into one arm, wanting to violently clear his desk with s mighty sweep, to just admit to himself how infuriated he was. Opening and closing his fist hard, almost hard enough to pierce his skin with his nails, Jack just wanted to let go.

But that wasn't how he was, that wasn't Jack O'Neill. Jack O'Neill gritted through any pain, Jack O'Neill had never broken… but he'd come close before, and this was pushing his limits.

* * *

Sitting didn't help, neither did pacing.

The words of the Major in charge of the HazMat team rang in his ears. Nothing could have survived the blast, let alone the radiation. The DragonSkin vest they'd found was Sam's alright, No one else who wore that size was missing.

He stared intently at the model of the 302 in front of him, Cam recalled the entire battle as if it were video footage, the gun camera of his mind. Taking out a pair of Death Gliders, firing the last of his outboard missiles at the Al'Kesh in order to enter atmosphere safely, he even remembered Rocko's comment on his _"Shaft' _ quip.

There were a few gliders left in the air, and one had begun to strafe the ground instead of dogfight him. Cam had reacted instantly, spinning his craft around and putting his last missile into it.

He'd heard Sam on the radio at that point, She was going in with her team. Cam wanted to just slam on the brakes and land to join her, armor and weapons be damned, he needed to be with his team.

Instead he'd been kicking ass up in a 302, something he'd often thought he'd been born to pilot. Looking at his flight suit, still wearing the damn thing after so many hours, Cam got a good grip on the _"DarkStar Titan" _patch on his shoulder and with one deft move, tore it off.

Still glaring at the 302 model that was held up by a base with a looping metal holder, Cam cursed the day he'd accepted his flight wings.

* * *

Daniel sat in his room with Vala lying curled up from corner to corner on the bed, silently offering and taking whatever support they could give each other without making it overt. Both were feeling the pain, but both were unwilling to let it be seen.

Vala was crying softly, Daniel knew it. He himself used his fingers to keep his own tears inside, closing his tear ducts in a motion similar to prayer. He wanted nothing more than to get away from here.

Cam had opted to be alone, simply sitting in his quarters contemplating the situation. Daniel could swear he'd heard banging and crashing against the wall as he walked past. He couldn't blame the man.

They'd left. RedScope's offworld facility had been emptied of the bodies and surviving equipment, then the castle was brought down by a Sapper Team. They commented on Cam's excellent demolitions job, obviously impressed that this came from a flyboy.

But the entire crew was somber, the lives lost compared to the gain they'd made was steep. All for a mission that in the end, didn't achieve much. They'd stopped RedScope, but their backer was still a mystery. The illustrious veil of invincibility had been torn asunder, the SGC had faced an opponent individually more competent and threatening than any Jaffa or Kull. Maybe even more dangerous than the Ori in the right circumstances. Victory was bittersweet, the epiphany of how fragile the balance of power truly was had shattered their perspective.

The SGC would be more careful now, the Asgard and Tok'ra had been contacted and the beginnings of a sensor net around Earth had begun to be designed. Without Sam though…

Daniel finally reached out and put his hand on Vala's shoulder. She'd stopped crying, her face still pointed away from him, but Daniel knew. Pain like this didn't go away no matter how hard you sobbed, how loud you screamed or trashed. Pain like this had only one cure.

Time.

* * *

Neither man said anything as they sat on the bridge. Both had had their silent moments alone, and now it was time to support each other together. Something they'd done since day one so many years ago.

All it took was a look, a silent issue of support and camaraderie, Eventually they'd talk about it, but it wouldn't be for a while and it definitely wouldn't be a long talk.

"Sir, we're approaching Sol."

Sitting in his chair on the bridge next to Jack, Daniel screwed his face for a moment, but then recognized the name. Jack knew it already, since astronomy was a fun little hobby of his. "Bring us in over Earth, Geosynchronous orbit over Nevada. Make sure our radar scramblers are on this time."

"Uhh. _Yes_… Sir."

Seeing that Marks was a little offended by the reminder, Jack muttered. "I know it wasn't _you_ Marks. You were in Pegasus.. Just new SOP from Homeworld Security." Jack said it very matter of factly, and Daniel couldn't help noticing how he didn't make some sarcastic quip about Marks being in so many places at once. That more than anything proved just how affected Jack was.

Marked turned in his seat and nodded. "Yes, Sir. Thank you, sir."

Getting up, Jack looked to Daniel, "Woolsey should be at the SGC, he'll want to know everything."

Daniel looked over at the screen and mused. "Shouldn't we tell them we're here?"

Major Marks replied in General O'Neill's stead, his voice just a little somber as well. "The SGC has a subspace radar and automatic greeting for any incoming ships, sir. They know we're here."

Jack silently cursed himself, they were here… just not all of them.

* * *

The white flash of light ebbed, and Woolsey turned to see Jack and Cam standing at attention, with Daniel behind them with his head bowed in either reverence or depression, Woolsey couldn't tell which. "Good afternoon gentleman, we've been expecting you."

Jack just wanted to get this over with, the debriefing, the snark, the anger, then he could pull away and go somewhere he'd be in private, somewhere that only nature would be staring at him, wondering how he felt. Slowly purifying the pain for his being. _"Joy__"_ He couldn't keep the all the snark and detestation out of the word, but Woolsey didn't seem to mind.

Sitting down, Woolsey and Landry began the debriefing. It all followed standard procedure, how the original plan failed, how the hastily remade plan ended up having more casualties than expected, any viable information taken from RedScope's offworld base… Jack was numb throughout it all.

This numb feeling, it was that same feeling he'd had before he first went through the stargate. He just didn't care anymore. Jack had come into this whole fiasco glad that he was doing something again, glad that he'd gotten his fattening rump off that chair in DC and put it where it belonged, on the frontlines.

Was he so out of practice that it cost his best friends their lives?

"…So because of the potential nuclear situation…"

Daniel caught on instantly, as did Cam and Jack. "Nuclear? We haven't told you that yet, How'd you know there was a nuke?"

Woolsey and Landry turned to each other momentarily. "They don't know?"

Landry shrugged. "I guess they forgot to add it to the greeting."

Jack was now getting infuriated, "What!? What greeting?! What haven't you told us?"

Woolsey groaned softly, and the nodded to Jack. "The reason we know there was a nuclear element involved in the skirmish at RedScope's offworld base, as well as more esoteric data about the happenings inside the facility…"

It was a delayed realization, but Jack didn't want to wait any longer. _"Where are they?"_

Landry realized that up until this point, Jack was sure they were dead, and even a Major General had his moments where care for those under his command came before orders and objectives. "Last I saw, they were in the infirmary."

Uncaring of anything else, namely because he was the ranking officer on the entire base, Jack just got up and stormed out, a few moments and a few requests to leave later, and Daniel and Cam were on his heels.

* * *

Teal'c sat along with Dr. Lam as she began to examine the specimen. They both remained quiet as she slipped her gloves on. Just as she was about to begin the procedure, the doors burst open as Jack and company stormed in.

Jack turned and saw the Doctor and Teal'c both staring at a disembodied foot. He froze momentarily, his face screwed in confusion and thought. Jack then looked up to Teal'c who smiled knowingly, both glad to be alive. Instinct took over and Jack mused with a slightly chipper tone. "Teal'c, what have I told you about dismembering people? It's wrong on _so_ many levels." Jack used his hand to emphasize his point.

Teal'c's smile grew into a sly grin, and he motioned with his head. "This is all that remains of whom I assume to be Lance Ridge, infested with a Goa'uld."

Getting a bit closer to the table, the four men watched as Dr Lam began to peel away the burned clothing at the top to get to the undamaged skin beneath. "We have Ridge's DNA on file, we'll be able to tell for sure in a few hours whether it's him. As far as the Goa'uld inside him, without an actual piece of it, the protein marker is useless as far as identification. It must have held back from a full blending because I haven't found anything that's not human."

Daniel eyed the boot and recognized it. "Isn't that…?"

Teal'c nodded instantly knowing what Daniel was about to ask. "Kull warrior armor, it required special attention to defeat this enemy."

Patting Teal'c on the back, Cam tried to keep his disgust to himself, even amidst his joy. "Good going T! Shoulda known even a Kull stood no chance against you."

Jack, who was looking right at Teal'c, saw the moment of realization. He remained quiet as Teal'c confirmed it. "Your praise should go to Samantha Carter. Mr Ridge would have escaped if not for her quick thinking."

Summing it up, Jack deadpanned as he recognized the level of damage as well as what remained. "The old 'orifice of doom' trick huh? And speaking of which…?"

Teal'c nodded, the four men now moving away from the infirmary. "Indeed, when Colonel Carter discovered the nuclear device, she realized that there was not enough time to disable it safely. I dialed the stargate to an uninhabited planet, in the event her plan did not succeed and the detonation was indeed nuclear. Once there, we dialed Earth and realized that you were outside of our communication range."

Daniel scratched his chin and turned back to the infirmary. "And uhh… Monty Python there?"

Cam groaned softly as he got the joke, despite trying to forget. "Least no one got away. 'cept for that Al'Kesh but I don't think they'll try this again. Right sir?" He turned to where Jack had been standing, and he could have sworn he saw a smoke outline of the general in much the same way as the roadrunner.

* * *

Sam gingerly touched the bandage on her chest through her shirt. The burn wasn't severe, but it _was_ painful. Some antiseptic burn ointment and a little vial full of Tramadol was all she needed now. It wouldn't even scar that badly given proper care.

Feeling more than a little perturbed though, Sam winced hard and bowed her head over the sink. She'd changed clothes from the bloody mess of her uniform, now in comfortable looser clothing, but it didn't make any difference.

She'd personally killed three people today, including a Goa'uld. It was necessary, it was her job, it was…

Feeling her stomach grumble, Sam covered her mouth and stifled the horrible taste in her gullet. She keeled over the side of the sink, clawing to the toilet and let loose.

She hadn't done this in ages, not since that first time on John F. Kennedy. She had killed people before, but rarely close enough to hear their breathing, feel their blood spray across her face as she ended their existence.

_And that goddamn foot!_ She had to admit Teal'c was thinking ahead when he picked it up, but _eugh! _That was _not_ what she'd been expecting to see in his hands on the other side of the gate.

Glad that her hair was too short to get in the way, Sam wiped her mouth of the bile, and forced herself to think of something other than the taste of blood on her face or the frozen frame in her mind of the Kull armor vaporizing from the unstable vortex. It was a silhouette of death that wouldn't leave her memory for a long time.

She often wondered how snipers dealt with this sort of thing. Killing in war was a finicky thing and different for everyone. The Gulf had been easy, just click a button and a bomb fell. Even so she'd still felt sick and disturbed after that first time. Ten years in the SGC had brought her into the frontlines, fighting Jaffa, Kull Warriors, and even Ori Priors.

Never in a million years did she think she would have to engage former servicemen, countrymen, military trained and completely willing to kill her and everyone she was with. And she had lost people today. She wasn't sure exactly how many or how bad, but she was positive SGC personnel had died to get this over with.

Flushing the toilet, Sam rinsed her mouth with that new non-alcohol based mouthwash she'd picked up a few days ago and calmed down. It was done, it was over with, time would heal this just like every wound she'd ever had. It was…

A knock at her door drew her attention. "Who is it?"

A few moments passed, and a familiar voice. "…_Jack._"

Sam winced, she hadn't been looking forward to this. She wished she could have left some kind of sign that she'd survived the blast but at this point, all that was left was to reassure her old friend that she was okay… a little rough around the edges, but okay. "Yeah, come in, sir."

She quickly checked herself out in the mirror, and despite a little lack of color in her skin, it didn't look like she'd just been sick from disgust. She exited the washroom and saw Jack standing at the door, still wearing his uniform. "Carter."

Sam smiled, gut reaction to Jack caring about her, The others weren't there but she knew, she knew they were giving her and Jack a few moments. "Sir. I uhh… Sorry, sir."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Feeling a little silly, and glad that he was playing along so she could forget the horrors of the battle, Sam deadpanned. "Sorry I couldn't tell you guys what we were doing. There wasn't…."

Jack shook his head and waved it off. "Don't worry." A slight grin came to Jack's face, and Sam could see that it was the only real expression he could give her at this time to show his joy that she and Teal'c were alive. Once the moment was over, Jack's professionalism kicked in again. "What'd you do exactly? Felger was convinced the thing went off but didn't blow up right."

Sam shrugged and put her jacket on, she was hoping that Jack hadn't noticed the bandage beneath her shirt. But something in his eyes tole her he already knew. "There wasn't time to disable it properly, so I… did the _stupid thing._"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You? Stupid?"

Feeling a little embarrassed, Sam motioned for them to get out of her quarters, the smell in the washroom was starting to waft and she _didn't_ want Jack to notice it. "Well a nuclear device is a really finicky thing. The implosion has to be exactly precise, or the atomic reaction just won't happen."

Jack didn't care, all that mattered was that his team… _his friends_ were alive. "Carter, you can explain _all_ the technobabble you want, but I just ran out of a briefing and I think you should come with us."

Sam sighed dejectedly. "Drat, I just got out of a briefing…"

* * *

"_SAMANTHA!!!"_

Still a little weak from the retching and the intensity of the last day, Sam had no defense against the charging ball of excitement that was Vala, especially after such a heartfelt and simply 'glad you're alive' hug that Daniel had given her. "Va.. _hey!"_

Picking her up in a giant bearhug, Vala showed unbelievable strength as she swung Sam around and almost danced gleefully. "Don't you _EVER_ do that again! This was worse than that time we all thought you were invisible!"

Sam's face had gone red, not only out of embarrassment, but also.. _"Va…la... I… can't… breathe…" _Sam barely got the words out, the rest of the team chuckling at Vala's girlishness, given how somber she'd been on Odyssey.

Cam chuckled and broke the two apart. "Hey now, let's give the conquering hero a lil' _breathing room._" Cam gave Sam a toothy grin and a pat on the shoulder as she caught her breath. Sam could see in his eyes that the relief he felt was being pushed down, forced to remain in control. "Glad to have you back Sam, even though ya never really left."

Sam cocked her head and shrugged. "It was close, but I'm glad we're all okay." She noticed the bandage on his right hand, kind of an odd injury for a pilot but she simply accepted that they were all alive.

Vala took a hold of Sam's hand and grinned manically. "_Ohh _this is so great! We need to celebrate." She turned and grinned at Daniel. "I'll make the reservations!"

Daniel tried, he really did. But Vala was already halfway down the hall towards his quarters before he even got the first word out. 'Hey! Where are you…!?" he groaned, and then looked to Sam. "Congratulations. My credit cards are now officially missing."

Sam laughed. Yes, her friends were weird, but then again so was she, which was probably why they all got along so well. She noticed that Jack remained silent throughout the entire reunion, simply standing off to the side with a strange half smile alongside Teal'c. Almost content, she'd say.

* * *

"Lemme get this straight, You _blew up_ a nuclear bomb?"

Sam nodded to Cam's question, with the now complete SG-1 around the briefing table along with Woolsey and General Landry, both of whom looked a little peeved.

Replying to Cam's question, Sam explained. "There wasn't time to disable it properly. So I grabbed all the C4 I had, shoved it into the panel and…"

Jack was too happy to care about formal procedure. "_Boom."_

Shrugging, Sam nodded. "Pretty much how it happened. We went through the stargate, I detonated it and since the explosion didn't translate through the gate, I figured it was okay. The implosion mechanism was probably damaged from the C4, and while it was likely a very large blast, the lack of an atomic reaction basically turned it into a 'dirty' bomb rather than a full on nuclear couldn't risk going back, and anyways. dialing back could have caused further problems because the radioactive materials…."

Jack tuned the technobabble out. He merely kept a somewhat attentive gaze, not even paying attention in his mind to whomever was speaking. SG-1 had done it again, Teal'c got to show off his fighting skills, Cam got to _'Shaft'_ the enemies despite a less than clothed start, Daniel was …there, and Sam got that monkey off her back about yet another person trying to kill her. Even Vala did her part, something that kinda surprised Jack

And at the end of it all, Jack was still quite pleased that he wasn't a retired old war horse just yet. He still had some fight in him and it would be a long time till he accepted the tenure of retirement, not till he truly was old and grey.

Yep, things were looking up now, if only there weren't so many questions left unanswered.

* * *

"You heading back to DC?"

Jack nodded. "Gonna take a few days off, President already said yes." Sam pursed her lips, she'd already made the arrangements with Vala, and even more, she'd '_convinced'_ Felger, Coombs and Lee to take care of all the scientific data they'd recovered from RedScope. If she never had to deal with this issue again, it would be too soon. Sam couldn't ask though, it was just too improper. Jack noticed her nervousness as the elevator went up and he groaned softly. "Yes! Daniel already told me. I've added the reservations."

Sam was momentarily confused as the elevator began to come to a halt. "Excuse me. Sir?"

Jack watched as the doors opened, and the first floor of the SGC became visible to him. A quick flight to DC, maybe some Guinness on the way, and he'd meet up with the rest of them. "Disneyland. I'll see you when I see you Carter."

Without saying another word, Jack smiled to himself that he could still leave Sam speechless.

* * *

The Al'Kesh came down slowly, the large cavern that had been converted into this secret base was large enough to fit even a Ha'tak, one of the only ways that they'd been able to transport so many sensors and materials.

The offworld facility was gone, but as far as he knew, the Tau'ri were in disarray. Anyone who knew about what was going on was killed, and the remaining grunts were hard enough to keep fighting… ignorant of the real reason it had happened this way.

It had taken months to get them to this point, where return to Earth would be nigh on impossible. Not only because gating there would expose their complicity in the various corporate raids they'd run, but once the first shot was taken against Colonel Carter, it was only time until the SGC retaliated with its full force. The SGC may have had its weak points, but the thing about Earth humans is the way they band together under duress and become stronger than the sum of their parts, like a ferocious animal defending its young. It was definitely an interesting experiment to see if he could harness that strength.

But that was how it was meant to play out, give the SGC the idea of a hard won victory when all they'd done was play into the subterfuge. Stupid humans. They honestly believed that by defeating something on their own level they were ensuring their continued freedom and dominance. Little did they know the true reason for pitting the SGC against an opponent they could win against, albeit just barely was merely a distraction. Those useful but rather dense mercenaries thought they could actually win against the SGC.

Fools, that was never the plan, to defeat the SGC at their own game wasn't the way things were supposed to go. Only a few of the whole group knew, Ridge, Franklin, and himself… _so to speak._

It had served its purpose though, the Tau'ri were in disarray over the threat, likely thinking the Lucian Alliance was responsible. With the Ori still a threat, he'd been able to get away pretty much scot free. He'd learned more as well, more than he could have learned on his last visit. The Tau'ri were much like him in a way, some simply gave into the their instincts, banding together to fight for a common goal, whether it be freedom and security as with the SGC, or power like Ridge and his cohorts. This made the final plan all the more delectable, soon all that intangible power would be his.

The Al'Kesh was almost completely empty, just himself as the pilot - the Tau'ri knew about these ships and how they typically carried hundreds, but all it took was one to fly. Leaving the ship in its berth, he decided to go and update… _himself._

The walk deep into the base was long, and only a few of the Jaffa working noticed him, those that did gave him the proper reverence, as should be, given their undying loyalty.

The center stage was now in sight, and walking down the dark and ominous ramp, he could see the one he was looking for. It wasn't a big surprise that the system wasn't operational yet, it wouldn't be for another year on the outside. But all that mattered was that the Tau'ri, the Tok'ra, and even the Ori were completely unaware of this place, too busy dealing with each other and the mess he'd left them to notice the sensitive nature of this facility. "Hello Handsome."

The man at the console turned, and scoffed softly upon seeing him. "Can't say the same about you."

Both men chuckled, and the one who had just arrived mused to himself. "This place is magnificent, just as I always dreamed."

The one who'd been working looked up and sighed. "Yes, it really is coming along nicely." Changing the subject, he kept his voice calm. "Did the Tau'ri do as we expected them to?"

"Yes, yes they did…" Looking at the edge of the catwalk, the man wondered exactly how deep this tunnel was. "They suspect nothing, and even better, Colonel Carter survived her injuries. All the pertinent information was destroyed and nothing leads back here… except…"

The zat blast seemed to come from nowhere, but it was really the man at the console who'd fired it at point blank range. "And you didn't see this coming? Ha, no wonder you're a _clone._ Nothing beats the original."

The crippling feeling of the zat blast wasn't enough to completely finish him off, this new body stronger and hardened from the bloodfields of Iraq. He _should _have seen this coming. But something… was it perhaps narcissism? Something had told him that he was safe, because of course, he was arguing with himself. He couldn't force his mouth to move, and instead turned on his hands and knees, unwilling to meet his demise without looking one last time at his face… his real face.

With unhesitant slowness, the man who'd fired the zat blast walked up to the other and quipped with more than slight amusement. "There can only be one Ba'al."

Using his foot, the real Ba'al shoved the other, albeit reasonable facsimile inside the body of a Tau'ri mercenary over the edge of the catwalk, the depth so far that even the smell of its rotten corpse wouldn't make it up here. Ba'al then holstered his zat and looked up at his device.

Nobody knew of this place, and his Jaffa had long since proven themselves. No… this would work, and the true irony was that it was those precious days spent in the SGC that had given him the knowledge to build this place, the fact that something as simple as a solar flare was going to change the history of the galaxy itself.

Yes, Ba'al may have been a minor system lord a few years ago, but soon… soon, all he could see would be his.

_-Fin_

* * *

**A/N: **So there you have it, the full story of "**Occupational Hazard"** I've had a blast writing it, and I sincerely hope you've had just as much fun reading it :D Many Many thanks go to all those who alerted, faved, and reviewed. But a good portion of your praise should go to **Sealurk**, without whom this story would not have been quite as good. 20 points to whoever can catch his cameo in the story! It's quite… cheeky ^_^

If anyone wishes to archive this, please PM me first just so I know where it's going, I have no issues with this story spreading around but I'd like to know _where_ it's making the rounds :D

Again, Thank you to all readers. I've had quite some fun writing this and if I get another plot bunny on this same level, you'll definitely be hearing from us again.


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